Making Kitchen Messes

It's hard to keep enough cookies in the kitchen for Santa with 3 kids (and a husband) around. I made 2 kinds last week (peanut butter w/ Hershey kiss and chocolate shortbread) and my husband made these really good spiced coins, but the stock has gotten low so we had a few more to make up. I got lazy of these and just got the slice-n-cook sugar cookie dough. They really prefer the decorating to the mixing, and they are WAY less messy if you don't have to make them!
Looks like it's time to replenish the Christmas colored sprinkles, as the cookes more look like Easter eggs.

This arrived last week...It's got to be a pound and a half or so. Its awesome to be on Handi Quilter's mailing list I tell ya! But personally, I am a dark chocolate gal (not to fear, the kids will most definitely help with this gigantic bar!), so I am using this for some cookies.

I saw these Rudolph cookies on some website this. They were supposed to be made with nutter butter cookies, but Hannaford didn't have them. We improvised...

Most of them got the eyes where they were intended...

And in a generous moment (no I hate cooking nearly as much as I hate cleaning up after cooking), I told Miss S we'd look for one more fun holiday cookie to make - something we hadn't made before.

Snowflakes!! and a few snow balls when only because the piping bag was getting slippery from overflow. Maybe not the tastiest, but the kids thought they looked good. I should add that I have also made a banana bread today, and mixed up the dough for gingerbread men, to be cut and decorated on the weekend. And we'll still probably have another type of cookie to do mid-week!

The preparations

Typically, this is a time of year that I can mostly just do without. It is all overly commercialized. Every possible store is busy, or beyond busy. I am not a religious person, so the very nature of the holidays often conjures up more questions than answers. And with 3 kids, the attitudes and emotions seem to be in overdrive too much of the time. Despite all of this, we went out and did our usual tree cutting at a local farm yesterday. I like and for some odd reason "need" to go through the motions, even if they are kind of a pain in the rump. Why does one child always need to be ingracious? Did he need to trip his brother?? And another is rude to his absolutely fabulous kindergarten teacher (whom we saw at the farm)? The notion of "You better not pout, You better not cry..." has fallen on deaf ears. December is a month of mis-behaven kids and sass. And I need a week alone somewhere deep in the woods (with a quilting machine of course!). They all come back into normal form on the 25th, but it just becomes too much for me.
We also went to see Santa this morning. On Friday while at the mall, they were oddly enthralled with Santa and the fact that we were missing seeing the reindeer parade at 4pm. Six eyes were scouring the roof of the mall in search of reindeer and a sleigh. It is the first year that Sophie has wanted to be anywhere near Santa, and without tears. Middle man went with a complete list for the bearded man that surprisingly did not include his "two front teeth", even though the loss of them is making eating harder! I just loved (LOVED) that Santa did have a talk with the boys about needing to listen to their parents and be really good...as if we had coached Santa on what really needed to be said!
I did not sew this afternoon as I would have liked. I took one shopping and then we had to put up the tree. For a few fleeting moments, the process was actually fun ...not an entire afternoon of "no, don't step on those lights" or "wait and let me do that ornament (with the sound effect of breaking glass next)". I have a hard time simplifying things tremendously this time of year. I should have been part bear because I'd be better off just hibernating from December 1 until March! I opted not to send out any holiday cards. I always like getting them, but this year it's just easier. We are not having a family picture since kid #1 decided to scalp the front of his bangs 3 days ago. He's on the hook to pay for his next haircut (assuming the weed-eater is not a sufficient tool). I love cookies, but I have managed to whittle my list down to 4-5 types. Maybe this week. The wrapping is started, the shopping is finished (if you don't count that my dad had me on his service this week too).

I know I read about how much everybody LOVES Christmas and all the hype leading up to it. I so wish I was like you guys. I want to love it, really I do, but I find it just too stressful and frustrating. Too much trouble, too much money, not enough inner satisfaction. But seriously, on that last point...I did listen in on the absolute best (BEST) concert last night since there was nothing on TV - PBS's membership campaign with Andrea Boccelli's Christmas concert. Seriously, if I make it into the pearly gates, he'll be in my heaven. Listening to his voice just melts the cares away~

Have a nice week all.

T minus 3

The Christmas preparations are about as much done as they are going to be. My husband and I went into my 6 year old's class yesterday to assist with a gingerbread house making activity. There was SO much candy it was insane. Even I ate too much of it. I can only imagine how much the kids ate, despite the instruction to only have 4 pieces. These houses were made with graham crackers royal iced (aka glued) to milk cartons, then decorated to death, as you can see!
Today I continued my cooking, just a little bit. I secretly really hate to cook. And I hate to do dishes more than that. But above all, I do love a good dessert, so here's what was made...

And the photos were not doctored!...The red velvet cake is so freaking delicious I can hardly wait. It's got 1 entire bottle of red food coloring in it to make it that deep color! Yesterday I struggled with my caramel corn. I had to remake the caramel once after having one batch crystallize (and then sending hubby to fetch me some more sugar). I have used a ghastly 6 lb of sugar this week between my caramel corn, these cakes and peanut butter fudge (double yum!). Yikes! I hear a diet in my January future...

.

I hate to admit that I have been quilting on this quilt 2 weeks now. That's not off & on for 2 weeks, that is about 45 hours of my life. I reached the bottom today, and breathed a huge sigh of relief, knowing that it can now be taken off the frame if need be, and put back on without causing any risk of creasing the backside. While I have a little time still, I am chipping away at little undone areas of it before I decide it is time to put on a customer quilt and get to business. When it is off, I will unpick any areas I am redoing, and do all of the marking necessary to finish it.

This afternoon, I quilted about 75 straight minutes of those straight lines in the black. They are 1/4" spaced. I've heard this type quilting called pinstriping or piano-keys, but this really is more like corduroy when it is this dense. It has tremendous texture. There's a good bit of ditch quilting to be done along those stripes, and I have not decided if I want to do it on the longarm or put it on my domestic, since they are so close to the edge.

It has challenged me every day, and despite feeling some days like I wanted to toss it overboard, I am starting to think it will be OK when it is finished. Only the good Lord really knows when that might be though!

T minus 6

Christmas is less than a week away. My kids are wicked excited. Guess they think Santa has deep pockets and an amazing nack of bringing everything that they want and then some. I honestly hope that they are not disappointed! I sat Miss S down with a pan full of premade cookies the other day so I could get some house work done (gasp...I did not make them from scrap!). She added sprinkles and sweets for a good 20 minutes. Unlike her brothers, she didn't just eat the sugars! My mother came over later that day and made a gingerbread house with her. That girl does love to cook! Her letter to Santa has been mailed, and she even received a delightful letter in return. Talk about being something surprised to get a note from Santa. She's convinced he's definitely going to bring her every possible princess!

I've been nursing a cold for nearly a week now, and as of last night I have 2 kids with it too. I took Sophie to the doctor this morning for an ear infection. Between her and Bryce I was up 4 times last night for either aching ears, stomach ache, peed bed or puking. Pure delight. At 5am, I gave in and climbed into bed with her because I knew I wouldn't have to leave my nice warm bed again if I just stayed there!

So now I get to the nitty gritty of my life. I've been stitching away on this darn quilt for 10 days now. I have lost count how many hours I have spent on it, but it is way too many. And there are far too many ahead of me to count. At present, I am happily past the halfway point, but I know it will go back on the frame and get more work. So merely reaching the end of the quilt is definitely nowhere near the end.

I have 8 or 9 different threads in this one - as you can plainly see from the massive thread pile! It has made quilting this in a timely manner impossible. I am sort of at the point where I would be cursing the customer if it were not my own blasted quilt. I am feeling tired of it, defeated in how I am quilting it and just plain frustrated. The fabrics are impossible to see the quilting on and I am discovering after I free-quilt areas (when I look at the back), that they look sub-par. Rip, rip. I also marked this stupid rosette completely before quilting it, then after I removed the marking pen, I was horrified how crooked some of the lines looked. I could just cry. I think that this was the point where I just wanted to toss the entire quilt. I am mad at myself for making it so freaking microscopic, so that every area to quilt is tiny, requiring ultra-careful control.

I have areas where I have more or less experimented on how I want to quilt them, so there are sections requiring removing to make things similar! I want to infuse more gold metallic thread, and tried it on the gray squares/diamonds. Not sure if it will stay or be changed to a more visible color. My middle initial "E" seems to be for "experimental" lately. Ouch. Perhaps you have a suggestion for me...(hint!) That just reminds me that I discovered a section of gold quilting that has ticking on the backside. Oh boy, do I have a lot of picking out!

For the longest time I really did not want the computerized gizmos for my machine. I take pride in stitching freely and nicely, but it surely would make stitching look perfect in areas with horrific visibility. My little rows of pebbling could look flawless, rather than rows of poorly traced fresh water pearls.

Christmas Dress for a special neice

Now that it is Christmas Eve, and the recipient of this is tucked away asleep in her bed, I figured I could show it. My neice, Alyssa, lives in Italy, so Santa is already about to deliver the goodies.
She's very much a girly-girl, loving the ballerina and dresses that twirl. I made she and her sister smocked dresses last Christmas too. She definitely appreciated that style more, wearing the smocked jumper into the summer. I wasn't going to go down that road again, but then I saw this ballerina fabric, and I knew what it needed to become.

The dress is made to look like two pieces, but it is actually just one. I had the rose (which is a batik), and it matched nicely. The bodice is not smocked this year - a much simpler version with just vertical pleats and pearly buttons. Since she is in Italy, I also opted for short sleeves, in hopes that she can wear it more of the year.

My pictures do not show the hem-stitching detail around the collar well, but it is very pretty. It coordinates with the edging of the ivory eyelet lace. The back of the dress has ties for a bow. I thought I had more pictures, but got into a rush to get their packages mailed before Thanksgiving so I guess I missed out. Hopefully my sister-in-law will send me a picture of her in it. She is seven, and is very tall for her age. This style of dress will suit her well, I think :-)

The Menu

It's taken 42 years, but we finally get to (have to) host Christmas at our house. Here's the menu...

afternoon hor d'oeuvres:

antipasto platter (olives, pickled veggies, susage, cheese)

gerkin pickles

shrimp platter

something else my mother is doing

cookies

dinner:

Stuffed pork loin

gratin potatoes

carrots & asparagus

homemade braided bread

salad

cranberry sauce

figgy pudding

desserts:

cherry pie

french silk pie

pumpkin cheesecake

red velvet cake

I did the cheesecake for Thanksgiving, and it was unbelievable. Delicious. I also just mixed all ingredients together rather than layering as recipe says. It's fantastic, and that streusel topping is like no other pumpkin pie. The red velvet cake, below, will not be iced until tomorrow. It unbelievably, takes an entire 1oz container of red fod coloring. It worried me having the 2 year old trying to help me make this one for fear of how pink my kitchen may be afterwards.

The younger two also whipped up three dozen more cookies. With 5 of us, they go fast, and we need a plate for Christmas day, as well as to leave for Santa. They are far from lovely, as I did not roll them and cut with cutters this year, but what they lack in grace, they make up for in color. I think I have spent $15 in colored sugar sprinkles this year!! Here we have sugar cookies, gingerbread, peanut butter-hershey kiss blossoms and white chocolate-macadamia nut cookies...enough for an afternoon or two!
Tomorrow's agenda includes having hubby vacuum again, clean bathroom, and make bread. I have to frost the red velvet cake, prepare veggies and pork, find out what time church is, and breathe! Maybe somewhere in there I can dream about a week away sewing in peace :-)

cheers-

Winter Has Arrived

Despite my greatest wishes that this season would bear less snow than last year (which had about 120" for us!), it sure looks like we are in for a repeat. Winter started a month or so earlier than usual, with November's average temperatures being nearly 15-20F cooler than what is typical. When I decided I'd put the outside lights up, I really hoped that the electrical cords to the bushes and little fense at the front of the yard would not be burried there until April, Again. Oh well!

Yesterday and Friday's storms netted us at least 18" of fluffy stuff. The boys are out freezing their butts off, as school was unfortunately canceled. No school means the younger two did not go to their last paid day of morning daycare until January, and sad poor Mama did not get her morning in peace to wrap presents and grocery shop. Boo hoo...Despite not being able to decorate the inside of our house as I normally do (our 9 month old kitten is a bit of a pest!), I did get the dining room cleaned out yesterday in anticipation of hosting our 1st Christmas dinner with both sets of parents. Normally my brother's family are at my mom's and we go there. They moved to Italy a year ago, so we have simplified the needing to have a celebration with both sets of grand-parents. It's lots of work to make my house presentable, but not having to go anywhere on Christmas is worth it. Until Santa comes, I have the stockings hung from the top of the china hutch. There is a lighted garland atop of it. It's quite lovely. I made our stockings as each kiddo was born. They are crush panne, with portions of sequined panne and satin. They have lots of Austrian crystals that shimmer beautifully under the lights. No stocking has a name on it. The kids choose which one they want on Christmas eve. I started doing the bows when I made the first three stockings. There are names "mama", "daddy", and "Hayden" in the Austrian crystals. Yesterday I decided to finish the bows for the other two and discovered I needed to order more.

With Hanukah starting, I wish my best to my Jewish friends-

Have a great week-

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and as a last minute sidenote for the partner making my 4SQS5 quilt...some info about me, as I suggested others to do if they see fit. I am orderly, but somehow manage to live in chaos. I sew much the same way! I like unconventional and original designs, but I hate those funky lopsided trees and houses that every body is making. I dislike sloppiness such as nipped off triangle points or mismatchings. I love traditionally pieced quilts and more modern-looking both. I love good needle-turned applique, but pretty much fathom most others (except for the distinctively excellent work of Janice!). Picky? Yea...somewhat, but I appreciate the effort that goes into these works. I dream of receiving something that appears to have the thought and effort that I put into my works. That's where peeking here will lend insight. I am a gal that is not afraid of color and patterns, just preferably not dull, murky or homespuns. Have fun. You know I am a peeker so limit postings to sneek peeks. I am a complete sentimentalist, so those that sneek in the little details that remind me of something personal ate golden. Sew bold, sew joyously, and sew You.

Alien Food??

One might think that this is alien food at first blush. Actually, this is my feeble attempt at bringing a little holiday cheer into our thus far, undecorated-for-Christmas home(unless you count the fact that the stocking holders are ontop of the china hutch, and have been since last year ...ooohhh the gasps!!). I have all but decided not to put out the outside lights this year. It's been wicked cold for nearly a month now, and this is a definite outdoor, freeze your butt off job that will fall at my feet. Also, we got so much freakin snow last year, the lights were up (not lit mind you) until late April since the cords were burried into 2-3 feet of snow and ice for 4 (yes FOUR) months. This year is simpler. I usually have a mini tree in our balcony nook (visible from outside and from our upstairs, but not accessible by anyone but our precocious kitten. It will not go up this year, Gee...wonder why?? Hopefully this weekend we will attempt getting a tree from the tree farm.
Anywho...I decided on a wild hair it'd be fun for my younger two to make a few Christmas cookies today. They like to mix this and that, but when it gets right to it, they really like to pour on the colored sprinkles and eat them. So I went with store bought sugar cookie and gingerbread doughs. It was a hit.

These are a little scarry, but heck, they loved making them, as usual.

And here's 30 seconds after they went in the oven. "Are they done yet??"

Happy shots making the alien creations. A couple of aliens will undoubtedly decend on the cookie jar tonight after the kids retire, if you get my drift.

And as for quilty progress...there's a ton of it going on, but it's all for holiday gifts and I cannot share it right now. I have a couple of jobs nearly completed, and a couple more that need about 10 of the next 21 days to complete. I promise, on Dec 24 I will start to post some good shots. And I will have about a week of these :-)

Oh, took my 4 year old shopping for him to select a present for his 6 yr old brother. The first words out of his mouth later were to tell his brother! Coulda strangled the little bugger!!

Now if you havent already. go consider the swap I am hosting after the holidays. I need another 12 people still! www.four seasonsquiltswap.blogspot.com