Birthday

     Today is my birthday and it's a snowday from school.  Who planned that!?? 

     This is a big number today.  I've been thinking and I decided there are two governmentally big birthdays.  Twenty one and 62.  Guess which one I am?   At 21 we're allowed to do things we couldn't before.  Like have a beer or glass of wine or something like that. We're also expected, I think, at least it happened to me, to know what we were going to do with ourselves.  We got away with a lot when our age ended in "teen" but suddenly at 21 I noticed the tone in people's voices changed and there was a new 'look' in their eyes.  Time to grow up.

    With this one the government says we can officially change our minds again and get away with it.  When I tell people I'm going to retire at the end of this school year, every single time I'm asked "what are you going to do then?"   And when I reply, "first thing I'm going to do is take a 6 month nap." THIS time they smile and nod and say, "good for you!"

      Our daughter had us over for a birthday dinner on Saturday night.  She knows I love Mexican food so she made a feast from Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen cookbook.  

It was every morsel a feast.  It was better than Thanksgiving! 

     We had Oaxacan Seared Cheese, Stuffed Peppers, Red Tomato Rice, Bistec Encebollado,

Crusty Griddle Baked Quesadillas, Rustic Baked Tamal (OMG was that good!!), and Red Mole Enchiladas.   And Margaritas that would curl your hair.  

And chocolate truffle cake from SarahBeth's Bakery cookbook. 

It WAS better than Thanksgiving!  Thanks again, Lisa!

 

Summer bites

It is absolutely sub-zero freezing here for the first time this winter.  It's long overdue but still a blast in the face.  One of the books I read to the kids had a blueberry muffin in the story.  What brings back summer better than blueberries?  So even though I've never in my life purchased a blueberry in January these were calling me (and the blueberries were on sale, even if they were from Chile.)

    Sarabeth's Bakery cookbook to the rescue once again.  And once again I fudged the recipe for what I had on hand.  All purpose flour instead of cake.  Orange juice from a bottle instead of fresh squeezed.

 Did not matter one bit.  They were delicious. Warm, oh so warm from the oven.

I had this one mostly eaten before I thought to take a picture.  These were mongo-big muffins and I didn't want to eat another ( oh, go ahead...twist my arm!) just for the picture so here's what's left!

Onward!

 I'm working on some quilt squares for our retreat group.  One of the girls gave the blue flowered as her focus fabric.  I'm fiddling with placing petals.

 and thinking of what to do with another...she gave the top right corner fabric.....

and reading this really, really interesting book....

The barn is raised!

TA DA!!

Obsessed!

Would you look at that thimble?  I've been a stitchin' fool trying to get the barn quilt quilted.  My finger is calloused, my thimble is disintegrating but I'm  a l m o s t  finished.  I worked the second sunflower and most of the sky last night.  If I can finish the sky tonight I'll just have the grass to work on and then the binding.  Phew! 

Barn Raising

I did it!  The barn quilt is on the dining room table, the box of pins is open, smooth it out and I'll have the quilt pinned in about an hour.  I met my deadline!  Actually, I could have met it yesterday but after shopping for the backing the nap sounded better.  I love the little border I added.  I spent ALL DAY Sunday reorganizing my stash...what a job...but I found this forgotten piece of yellow with little bumblebees on it.  What's a farm without bees??

Of course, true to form, I didn't follow the pattern completely but changed fabric ideas and left off a couple of critters I just ran out of time for.

The book I used it called Story Time: Picture Quilts to Stir a Child's Imagination  by KimGaddy and this is the cover quilt.  If you have little ones, this is full of very cute (but not cutesy) quilts that tell a story in progressive squares.  I just happened to pick the most detailed one to do in a very short time...a month!  It's completely needle turn appliqued. 

Now I have one month to get it hand quilted.  Baby is due Feb. 7.