Room Progress

So just when I thought I was going to get back into blogging:

- I start babysitting much more regularly again.

- Spring hits, which means lots of cleaning, weeding, planting, and various out door activities.

- LOST!!  Oh how I love Lost.  sigh.  I won't bore all of you non Losties with theories and thoughts - but if you want to talk to me about it - I would love to.  Just shoot me an email. :)

 So yeah, blogging hasn't been on the forefront of my mind lately, nor at the top of my priority list, but I am working on some posts.  I want to do a boys update, for those that follow from afar, and are interested. :)  I have a few recipes hiding out.  And of course some gardening stuff to report soon (I hope.)

Today I thought I would share some new pictures of the room my husband is making. He has done everything himself, except for the carpet, well and the painting  - I did that. I love that I have a handyman husband, he has really made/built some great things, and saved us a bunch of money in the process. Love him! :)

These were all taken before the carpet was put in last week (obviously)  There is a bit of the trim up now too.  I would go get some pictures right now - but there is a little one sleeping in there at the moment. 

And finally, a question for my fellow Blogger bloggers.  How do you insert pictures?  Do you use the uploader online, or do you upload via a different program - or load them from a different site?  Do you use the web editor - or is there one I can download to my desktop?  I've been having some issues with picture placement and being able to put the text where I want it, and so on.  I suppose if I would learn some basic HTML that might go smoother.  Anyways, any advice would be appreciated.

Quilt a long Weeks 5 and 6

So I finally have weeks 5 and 6 of the quilt along finished.  I'm completely behind - the instructions for weeks 7 and 8 are up already - this week I should be adding sashing...  Oh well, it will get done eventually.   Hopefully I can get the next set of blocks cut out tonight and finished before the end of the week.

MckMama + Compassion = iPad

Well for someone that equation will be true. :)

MckMama has a blog that I follow. Recently she and her husband went on a trip to Kenya with Compassion - a ministry I happen to love.  Yesterday she announced that she would be giving away an iPad to someone who gives to Compassion's Child Survival Program.  You can read up more about it on MckMama's blog or at Compassion.com.  For every $5 you give via the link on her blog, you receive an entry to win an iPad!  Pretty sure the cut off time is tonight at midnight, so you have plenty of time. :)


Click here to go to MckMama's site and read more about the giveaway!

So far $16, 995 have been given!!  Amazing!

Expect to see a blog about Compassion in the near future.  It's something close to my heart.

A Weekend Visit

Sometimes I am completely torn between my Love of living in rural Ohio and my unquenchable thirst for travel.  I love all kinds of travel, via planes, trains, or automobile.  Just exploring a new place.  Taking pictures of it all.  But at the end of the trip, I'm always ready to come back home to the slow pace of the country.  The wide open space that is our yard, the familiar places we frequent.

This past weekend a friend and I drove to Lancaster, PA to visit my best friend.  On Saturday we rode an Amtrak train into Philadelphia.  It was my first experience riding a train somewhere, and I enjoyed it.  So nice not having to worry about where to park or having to deal with the stress of driving in a city.

We took the subway to the historical part of town and walked from there.  We spent the day walking to several historic sites and then venturing downtown for a bit.  We met up with my best friend's cousin who lives in Phily. We had cheese steak for lunch. (So good)  We walked around carrying coffees.  We hung out in a Barnes and Noble when we started to get sore feet.  Then we made our way back to the train station, and back to Lancaster.  Then Sunday we drove the 6 hours back home.

I loved visiting. I loved getting a glimpse of what life might have been had we moved to Ireland, in the sense of living in a city.  (We most likely would have been in Dublin.)  But as we were driving home it hit me how much I really do love home.  I love living in the slow paced country.  But I'd go visit the city again in a heart beat.  Always torn. :)

Recipe Catch Up and Spring!

I have a few recipes to share. 3 of them I made over a month ago... I just found the pictures and realized that I hadn't posted about them yet. And instead of typing out the recipes here, I'll just post the links to where I found the recipe. I'm pretty sure I followed these pretty close to what was in the original. (Then again, it has been a month...)

The first is Faux Thin Mints.  This is the one recipe where I really wanted to do some tweaking.  They turned out alright, but there was something missing.  And to tell the truth these pictures were taken before I was completely done.  I actually ended up putting more chocolate on top.  I think some of the first things I would try differently would be to completely coat the cookie in chocolate - and use semi sweet chocolate instead of milk chocolate, and maybe add a bit more sugar to the dough mix, and bake them longer than I did.

Second we have the Homemade Oreos.  These really deserve a post of their own.  They were wonderful.  The frosting for the middle will certainly be seen in my kitchen again.  Probably on top of someone's first birthday cake...  Also, definitely check out the rest of the blog where this recipe was found - I have found many good recipes there.

Third is another round of Banana "Ice cream"  I added some frozen blue berries, raspberries, and cranberries to the mix. (Not too many, or it won't get creamy.)  Also, if you let everything thaw just a bit it makes blending it up into a cream easier.

Last is the newest one I've tried, Homemade Cheddar Crackers.  They didn't turn out like I had hoped, but they tasted great.  I think I needed to roll mine out thinner, and I didn't use the flour it called for, so that might have been an issue.  My crackers were not very crunchy at all.  However, they did get the stamp of approval from my husband and oldest son - so that's success in my book. :)

Now that spring is here it feels like there is so much more to do:  Start the garden, work in the flower beds, keep up with the Quilt A Long, several trips, spending lots of time playing outside with the boys, hanging laundry outside, taking walks, running outside, Grilling!! (hope to try a bunch of new recipes to go with our new grill), spring cleaning, the list could just go on and on. It should be a great spring!

Quilt Along Week 4 and New Work Space!

Here are last week's blocks. These were fun to make. :) I'm having a lot of fun trying all these new blocks that I haven't done before.

My wonderful husband has been hard at work transforming our laundry room into a guest bedroom and crafting area for me - while also keeping it's laundry room function. He built me a great work area desk and shelving. I can't wait to move my stuff in, but I need to wait until the drywall is done on the other half of the room. Pictures of that to come later.

Here is where some of my crafting gear resides at the moment. (On an aside, I got that great wooden high chair for $4 - yay!) I don't think many people could say they have cleaned baby food off their cutting mat...

And here is my new space!! I'll post more pictures once I'm officially moved in. :)

(have I mentioned how wonderful my husband is? :))

Testing Picture Uploading Options

Just testing something out. Enjoy some vintage Nicole and Nathan. (and my daddy. :))

Quilt Along Week 3

I'm all caught up on the Quilt Along. Looking forward to this week's block.

Quilt Along Weeks 1&2

I decided to join a quilt along a while ago, and it started about 3 weeks ago. I've been a little behind, but tonight I finished the first two weeks sets of blocks. Overall I really like how it is turning out. Just don't look at all the corners too closely... :)

I was a little bit out of line with the guidelines in some areas. We were supposed to pick up a Moda Layer Cake, but instead i just got some yardage of some fabrics I liked, so as a result there is alot less variance in color throughout my blocks. Also, we were supposed to get a solid, but I got a polka dot (on the advice of a close friend and relative. :)) So far I like how it is turning out. I'm looking forward to tackling this week's block (which was posted this morning.) If you want to join, all the tutorials are here at PS I Quilt.

Hoping to post more often - we'll see how that goes.