It's Saturday

And approximately 2:00 p.m. Saturdays are the days to get the house back in shape from the whirlwind week. The temp. outside is the lower 50's but Tom and the boys have mowed the lawn twice before April 1st. Here is Kevin mowing now. Sam is missing today, he and a group of scouts are staying overnight in a submarine in Michigan.

The neighbors may think we are a little looney but the lawn is looking nice, don't you think? Tom wants to keep the outside looking well kept since the house is for sale. I went out to take these pictures and the smell of freshly mown grass is heaven. It is a Simple Pleasure!

Shown is our Pin Oak, and it has just grown up so nice and straight. It's a good tree and doesn't lose the leaves until spring. I need visuals to draw trees because it's good to have different shapes, this will go into file of "good trees to draw".

The other pine tree is called our "Judy O'Bannon tree". Tom is a retired State Trooper and he was driving the First Lady of Indiana around and they were taking trees to state parks. She had some left over and gave 3 to us, this one survived. It is a special tree.

The cats are taking the day off from watching the house when we aren't home. All that responsibility wears them out as you can tell.

Found Items

I have started cleaning out closets and have found some things I made that I had forgotten about.

This little quilt was a challenge quilt from a quilt club I had been a member of, The Hoosier Favorite Quilters. We were given the 6 inch block patterns and also the floral fabric to incorporate into the quilt. This is what I came up with. I love to do all hand piecing and quilting. I do sew the borders with a machine though.

These tiny quilts I had forgotten about. I enjoy hand embroydery also and applique and these were just fun to make. I have lots of neat buttons and used a few in the quilts and the and the little door knob hangers.

Winter Garden

My Laundry room was getting a lot of use (like everyones) and I decided to perk it up and stencil a garden on the walls. This was three different templates layered on top of each other. It's fun to come into that room.

Here is also a watercolor I started of our cat Sebastian. I feel that I got his expression right. The start of our new house adventure is right here. This shows our empty lot or blank canvas being ready to be painted on. We will have a really nice view of the pond. Water is such a soothing element in life.

It Has Been One Busy Weekend

That is why I haven't gotten to post till later this evening. Here is how it went. I was so lucky to realize that I got to get off of work at noon on friday because on saturday I was working a registration at my University. So I decided to go get a fill and a pedicure (very much needed and oh so important)! Got home and then Tom, Sam, Kevin and myself met some friends (the Sovines) for dinner and then went to their house for some friendly talk. Got up early Saturday morning and met (co-workers) Beth and Toni for breakfast at 8:00 at Panera Bread which was fantastic. I had a strawberry organic yogart parfait, a cinnamon roll and milk. We all then worked registration and during that time Tom decided to have an open house on Sunday. He saw there was another in the neighborhood and since we are selling our house by owner he decided to take advantage of the realty companys advertising cost and put our sign by theirs.(He is so smart) So that meant I had to come home and get the inside of the house together. We then went out with (Dave and Nancy) our friends and also neighbors for dinner then drinks. On sunday got up early for 7:45 church and then out to breakfast. We got home and still of course had to get the house ready, print off some more flyers and open up at 1:00. We had only two sets of people come through but they may be possibilites. We were really happy with that since the sign only went up on saturday and it didn't cost us a cent! I finally did cook a meal though, baked pork chops, rice, pillsbury french bread and green beans. There is still nothing like a good homemade meal. I was very lucky this weekend that we got to dine out so much and spend time with good friends. Oh yeah, I went to the grocery after dinner. Oh and while I was waiting for people to come through the house I was studying for a test in my history class-Hitler and WWII, always an enlightening subject. Another thing, Tom and I took a walk around the neighborhood for a bit. I bet if I thought hard enough I could eek something else out of the day but off to another subject.

I always enjoy talking with the new students and this year our family will have a college freshman too. He will be getting registered in April, not for Saint Francis but for a technical university in the same city. Here he is when he was nine months old, so so soooooo cute and here he is all debonair and handsome. We are just very proud of him. He is going to be a computer networker and I am sure a darn good one.

I received these pretty stacks of fabric a few years ago from some fellow quilters. I have never been able to bring myself to untie the ribbon. The are so pretty this way and I get a lot of pleasure looking at the stacks. Someday when I need a special piece of the fabric I will break them open.

This is a lovely little dresden plate I made in blue and yellow. It is so happy and I put it in my office at work. It just reminds me of summertime. Another thought of summer time are these pictures. Tom, Kevin and I were able to borrow a cottage on Lake Erie and the woman who owned it had very sweet flower gardens. To thank her I painted these two pictures of her flower pot and garden. She paid me such a complement by having them framed, matted and put on the wall in that same cottage. I so appreciated that and hope to be able to see them the next time we go.

Every Quilt, piece of fabric or black clothing has fur on it because of this little fella....Stonewall Jackson. He is my constant companion. When he was just a wee kitten he would crawl up and sit on my shoulder. He is a stinker, always keeping the other two cats in line and thinks he owns me. Everyone should have a friend like this.

Todays simple pleasure....Turtle Chex Mix...YUM!

Color

I just love color, especially set up like the color wheel. In my 2D art class we had to do a couple of assignments that were to make the color wheel in an interesting way. One thing I had the most of was fabric, so I made a quilt top in simple squares then with the neutral colors in black, grey and white. When I get it quilted I will be sure to show it. My other assignment was mixed media with a magazine paper background and mixing acrylics to make the color wheel. I stamped and embossed hearts and cut it out with raised mounting. Its one of my favorite pieces. I then bought a couple of new purses recently and they both have lots of different colors. The pastel stripes is even reversible with a solid spring green on the other side. Too fun! I arranged my colored pencils in the color wheel and they are so much fun to look at and use. For my nieces and nephew I bought some new playdough to use and loved the color wheel effect with those. Eventually it will all turn brown as like much of the playdough does in little hands, then (sigh) I will gladly buy them more.
My Simple Pleasure for today-this simple little iris that has bloomed in my dirt for the first of the spring flowers. They are so dainty and lovely I can hardly stand it.

Inspired by Julia

After watching the movie Julie and Julia I decided I should put more thought into my meals. I love cookbooks and have many, many good ones. So last weekend I sat down with a couple of them and made my grocery list. I picked out approximately 6 recipes to make and bought the ingredients. The first one I made was Swiss Meatloaf. It came from "Cooking from Quilt Country" by Marcia Adams. It turned out very tasty, with a nice texture. My family loved it with an average score of 8 out of 10. Here is the recipe:

Swiss Meatloaf

1 egg
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 tsp. rubbed sage
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
1 cup cracker crumbs (round buttery ones) approx. 24
3/4 cup grated swiss cheese
1/4 fine chopped onion
2-3 strips bacon

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Beat the egg in a large bowl. Add evaporated milk, sage, salt and pepper, mix together. Add beef, crubs, 1/2 cup of the cheese and the onion, blend together. Form into a loaf and place in a 2-quart rectangular baking dish. Arrange bacon pieces on top of the loaf. Bake for 40 minutes.
Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup of swiss cheese on top and bake 10 minutes longer.

My dear friend Colleen in Georgia sent me a book by an author she had discovered. It was Run by Ann Pachette. We send books we have read to each other. I always tell how good the book is by how fast I read it. This one was a 3 day read. It was about a family that had this beautiful Mary statue that has been passed down in the family. The last family that had it the mother passed away and siblings had wanted it back. It was not given up though because this statue resembled the dead mother. I was so taken by the book that I bought my boys a Mary statue each for valentines day. She is standing in prominent places on their desks and the statues faces are quite beautiful. I bought one myself of Our Lady of Fatima because I love her clothing and face. It is beautiful. She stands on my window sill with my Saint Francis statue that our dear family friend Angie brought back from her pilgrimage from Assisi.
Daily Simple Pleasure, Big Lots. I can find the most random items there, from my favorite laundry detergent, to scrapbook supplies, to books,and have found the best ones there. One that I just read was "The Other Side of Me by Sidney Sheldon. It was a 4 day read only because my reading time is limited. The best thing about it......Large Print. It was wonderful!

Oscar Night

Sitting here watching the Academy Awards. I always enjoy the opening and hope to get some good laughs and I like seeing everyone in their finery. Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin being the hosts this year. Sometimes the jokes flop but they still just keep going on. I sometimes wish that Steve Martin would just get happy feet again, he is just so serious anymore. The funniest I remember is when Billy Crystal was the host and kept making comments about Jack Palance. They just had the tribute to John Hughes, he made so many great movies and made so many stars. More than what I realized. He left too soon. I am always also interested in seeing the tribute to all the artists that passed away the last year since I often forget. Great artists that entertain us.

My sister Linda and I took a weekend trip in October to Berea Kentucky. We had a wonderful time looking at all the fun art and shops. Eating at the local restaurants and stayed in the cutest cottage. I am sharing some of the pictures from the trip.

The other picture I made for a very dear family friend, Angie. Again I made it after reading Kelly Rae Roberts book "Taking Flight".

My 7th Simple Pleasure....Sunshine....We have had 6 Glorious Days of it. Sunshine makes a soul instantly feel better.

Weekend bits

I love my birdfeeders. They are right outside my dining room window. Earlier this week when it was still cold and snowy out and there was a hawk right outside our window! We live in a housing addition so this is a very unusual sight. He was paying no attention to the birdseed but kept walking under the deck looking for some unsuspecting rodent I believe. I couldn't get my camera focused quick enough to get a picture. It was magnificent when he took off with that wonderful wing span. He flew up on top of our swingset with an empty belly. Then he flew off into wherever he was going.

Then we also have a resident male cardinal who sits at the top of our trees and sings his heart out. This morning I heard him in our short, squatty crabapple tree, singing away. I opened a blind to get a peek and he was chasing two other birds in the tree. They would hop, he would hop all over that tree. I believe they were Cedar Waxwings trying to eat the dried up apples. He finally got them to fly over to the neighbors tree, did the hopping thing all over it and then they flew off with Mr. Cardinal chasing them. He did not like it that they were in his area.

Simple pleasure #6.....Potato soup. My Mom always made this. It is a great cold weather soup and also good during lent for the Catholics in the crowd. I made an Mmmmm good pot this last week. Here is my recipe.

8 qt. pot

12 to 13 potatoes-one great big one and a couple little ones-peeled and chunked.

water to cover with two inches over.

6 chicken boullion cubes

salt

Let boil then simmer till soft, approx. 1 hour.

White Sauce

Use larger sauce pan

1 stick margarine

1/4 cup flour

Salt and Pepper

2 cups milk

melt the margarine and add the flour and salt and pepper. Mix till a smooth paste forms. Add the milk slowly stirring and then cook on low until the sauce thickens. Add it to the potatoes and simmer for 10 - 15 minutes. Some people add ham, cheese, drivels-flour and egg mixed together and dropped by bits into the soup to make little dumplings. I eat mine plain with whole wheat saltine crackers and margarine. Just Simply a simple pleasure.

The last picture of the series is shown. I was happy with the way the ballarina turned out. The building is a nearby funeral home, I loved the arch.

The other picture I made was after I bought Kelly Rae Roberts book. It is a fantastic book and it is called Taking Flight. It was very inspirational with techniques and products to learn. I drew the tree after driving through the mountains of Tennessee and Kentucky last April. The leaves were just beginning to sprout and I loved it because I was going back to Indiana and at that point it was still cool and the trees were bare.

The Boys of Summer

BASEBALL and The Detroit Tigers are steady figures at our house. Our basement bar is navy blue and orange, we have a great fathead of the Old English D with the tiger crashing through it on our wall. The usual street sign of "Tigers Drive" and we had a special one made of the address of Comerica Park, "2100 Woodward Avenue". Comerica Park is not just a regular baseball stadium, it is a beautiful structure with many appealing art elements. Let me show you a few.

We have a special viewing area on our deck where we watch the Tigers on Fox Sports Detroit. Under the gazebo we have an outdoor room set up with rug and wrought iron table with the television, it's wonderful and so enjoyable. We are longing for the warm breezes with the crack of the bat and the cheering crowds.

Above is a watercolor that I did for Tom of Comerica Park at night.

Simple Pleasure #4-Netflix. I love it that the movies come right to my mailbox and they are so fast! I can keep them as long as I want and have no late fees....that rates up there with my checking account that has no fees. Then just drop them back in the mailbox, to get some more sent right back to you. It's just the best!

Oh and last night my friend Theresa and I watched Julie and Julia with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams.REALLY, REALLY good movie and on a scale of 1-10....it gets a 10. There is a chocolate cake in there that I want the recipe for. I will have to go to Simple Pleasure #5....The Library....and check out the cookbook.