The Snack Table

Posted on March 22, 2008 by Suzanne

Just got home from the Library Brunch. Here’s a shot of our table, all decorated. There are also canisters of mini chocolate chip cookies and potato chips on the other side of the flowers.

You can’t tell from the picture, but the flowers are arranged in my spaghetti canister. I took the spaghetti out and washed it first. It’s one of those that has the lid that flips over and seals with a latch.

There were lots of very pretty tables, but I’m pretty sure ours was the most clever. If I do say so myself.

The speaker was a lot of fun. Carol Bodensteiner is the author of a book called Growing up Country: Memories of an Iowa Farm Girl. She spoke a little about her experience writing the book, and also read a few stories from her book. A fair amount of her audience were also Iowa Farm Girls, so there was lots of head-nodding and laughter at stories they recognized: Traumatic Chicken Experiences seemed to be a shared memory by many.

I was fascinated that she ended up self-publishing her book because she could not find a publisher to take it on. She was told that while it was well-written and interesting, there was no character in crisis. Nothing bad happened. Except maybe with chickens. Not enough sensationalism. Just the stories that she remembers from back when she was 8-12 years old on a dairy farm in Iowa. Too boring I guess.

One of the questions that she was asked was whether her sisters and Mom read the book and agreed with/remembered things the same way she did. She said that many of the things that she remembered were only remembered by her. And in some cases, she remembered things wrong: she thought they did laundry on Saturdays, but her Mom (and the audience today) said “Oh no, EVERYONE did their laundry on Mondays.” One of the audience members lived in town growing up, and said it was something of a point of pride as to how early on Monday morning you got your first load hung out to dry.

Speaking of remembering things: my Mom will probably correct me if I’m wrong, but the pancake recipe I mentioned yesterday is one that I think came with the brand-new set of really expensive pots and pans that my parents purchased sometime in the early 80s? Maybe it was earlier than that? They don’t make pots and pans like that anymore. Mom still uses most of them. I’ve ready to replace my cookware, and I’ve only had it for less than 10 years. Plus, everything is sticking in my electric skillet, which is why I burned myself yesterday, so I need to replace it, too.

Pancakes

2 c. flour
2 T. sugar
1T baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 3/4 c. milk
2 eggs
2T oil or melted shortening

1. Sift flour with sugar, baking powder, and salt. (Hmm. I never actually sift. Just stir them with a fork…)

2. Combine milk with beaten eggs; add dry ingredients.

3. Blend thoroughly, until lumps disappear. Add shortening or oil.

4. Pour batter into skillet, preheated at 400, and bake until bubbles break and edges are cooked, flip and cook until done, about 1 minute per side.

Serve immediately.

I don’t even know why I mentioned the burn yesterday. Maybe because it was so fresh and painful. I smeared some Solarcaine gel (that had aloe in it), and today, it doesn’t really hurt and you can barely tell I did anything. What a wimp.

Maybe this will week I’ll do a library brunch table retrospective. We’ve had some pretty clever ideas in the past, and they’ve always included a quilt of some sort.

Now, though, those log cabin blocks are calling my name. I must heed their siren call.

Suzanne

It’s all Mary’s fault

Posted on March 21, 2008 by Suzanne

A couple of days ago, Mary posted about the log cabin blocks she was making. Now, I need a new project like I need a hole in my head, but I found myself dreaming about log cabin blocks, and when I woke up this morning I couldn’t stand it any longer.

Hers are string log cabins, meaning the logs are different widths, some blocks start with rectangles some with squares.

I decided to dig into my overflowing 1.5 inch strip bins, use a red 2.5 inch square for the center, and the next thing you know:

I have 42 blocks that are in progress, 4 different groups with differing amounts of logs attached. I’m not sure how big I’m going to make them. I’m scared that no matter now many blocks I make, or how big I make them: that bin of dark strips that is overflowing is going to look exactly the same way that it does now, and there won’t even be a dent. And that’s just hte 1.5 inch strips. I’ve got 2 inch, 2.5 inch, 3.5 inch…plus bins full of scraps too. Sheesh.

It’s only been in the last year or two that I’ve actually made the leap to scrap quilts (even though I’ve been generating scraps for a lot longer than that…) I love the way a scrappy quilt looks when it is done, but it’s hard for me to get over the initial feeling that everything has to match, or that everything has to be a planned color scheme.

So many quilts and not nearly enough time.

I have to remember to take my camera tomorrow so I can post a picture of our table. I’m pretty sure it’s the most clever one there.

TTFN-

Suzanne

p.s. It didn’t snow! Woohoo!

p.p.s. I burned the back of my hand on the electric skillet while making pancakes tonight. Ouch. (I hit the edge while flipping a pancake). I should share our pancake recipe. They are quite yummy. They are flatter than pancakes from a box or the pancakes you seem to get at a restaurant. And they really don’t take much more time to make than those from a box…

Yummy fabric

Posted on March 20, 2008 by Suzanne

I bought a kit last summer that included the yummy fabric, plus a red Moda Marble. Didn’t really care for the pattern, just wanted the fabric.

Last week, I was asked if I would decorate a table for our library’s spring brunch. Sure, I said! And I knew just what I wanted to do, but that required making this quilt to be the tablecloth….

It turned out that I didn’t have enough of the Moda Marble to do what I wanted, but luckily I had purchased a bolt of red flannel at Joann’s recently. Quick to piece, quilt to quilt, and a machine finished binding…

Mom is helping me out with the decorating. I kind of volunteered her. She does the same thing to me, so don’t feel too badly for her.

I’ll take pictures on Saturday so I can show you what we are doing for our centerpiece/table decoration. Any guesses?

I didn’t take a picture, but the back of the quilt uses up a big hunk of a plaid flannel fabric that I’ve had in my stash for….10 years?

This morning I took a pile of quilts to a photographer’s studio and had my picture taken! She said she’d probably have the proofs online for me on Monday or Tuesday. I had fun, she says the pictures were looking good, I hope she wasn’t lying to me. She did some “formal” with just me, and then we did a bunch with the quilts involved as props. She says I can share the link to my proofs. We’ll have to say if I’m brave enough to do that. Mostly I did it because I thought it would be kind of fun — I don’t have a lot of pictures of myself, and it will be nice to have some that were taken by someone that knows what she’s doing (as opposed to ones taken by one of the boys…). Oh, and in which I’m wearing my make-up and my hair looks halfway decent. (At least I hope it looks OK…)

One thing I learned, as I sat on the floor with my legs crossed funny: I’m in serious need of some exercising to work on my flexibility. Ouch. She did say “At least you aren’t kneeling.”

TTFN-

Suzanne

pb&j

Posted on March 19, 2008 by Suzanne

took these photos awhile back (sheesh, a month ago!) and meant to share, but just now got around to doing something with them.

click on it to view it larger.

these pics crack me up.

tomorrow: quilt content. promise!

It’s all about the speed

Posted on March 19, 2008 by Suzanne

My Internet connection is Wireless, it’s pretty quick, but when I try to watch videos, oy, those can be painful sometimes. I’ve been doing some investigating of my options this week, and found that I could switch to a faster wireless option for only $5 more per month. From 256k to 512k. Wheeeeeeeeeeeee………..I can definitely tell a difference, and it is totally worth the extra bucks.

I do have another option: 1.5Mbps DSL, for about the same price that I’m paying now (and only $10 more after the first year…), but that would work switching to a different company, and even though the techy geeky part of me is screaming “OMG that’s almost the speed of a T-1 line” the more practical side of me is saying “Yes, but you’d lose the awesome customer service you get from the current provider (it’s our local utility company and the guy that runs the network will come to my house whenever I need him to check on something…”

While speed counts for a lot, customer service counts, too. So, I guess it isn’t ALL about the speed. I’ll try this for a couple of weeks and than make a final decision.

And if your eyes glazed over at all of that, I apologize.

Speed also counts when you are sledding:

Mark and the boys went out to the farm several times in February to sled on the really humongous piles of snow that Grandpa had created whilst plowing. It really entertained me that so many of the shots of Will had him smiling for the camera at just the right spot. In theory, you should be able to click on the layout to view it larger. I’m trying something different with how the photos are uploaded.

This layout was created using a template from Jen Caputo, and papers by Amanda McGee and Amanda Sok. I really liked the really graphic look of having it on the solid white background, so I left that, rather than trying to add another paper element to the layout.

Here’s a shot of the hill of snow, so you can get some perspective. This was taken February 23. Thankfully, the weather has been warm enough that a lot of our snow is gone, baby, gone. Of course: there is a 70% chance of snow on Thursday/Friday. Doesn’t Mother Nature know that the calendar says Spring is supposed to start on Thursday???