Melting Snowman Cookies and giveaway winner

Melting Snowman Cookies

Sugar Cookies

1/3 cup cold butter
1/3 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour

Beat butter and shortening with an electric mixer for 30 seconds on high speed. Add in sugar, baking powder and a dash of salt. Beat until combined. Add in egg and vanilla and continue mixing. Add in the flour 1/2 cup at a time. Lightly flour your rolling surface and place half your dough on top. Make sure dough gets nicely coated with flour on all sides. Roll out your dough 1/8 to 1/4 inch in thickness and cut using a round biscuit cutter. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 375 for 7-8 minutes or just until the cookies edge is firm and the bottom of the cookie is a very light golden brown. Cool on a rack

Sugar Cookie Icing

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tsps milk

2 tsps corn syrup

1/2 to 1 tsp. almond extract

Add your powdered sugar to a medium sized bowl, then add your milk and corn syrup. Mix well!! Then add your extract and slowly add more milk and corn syrup until you get the consistency you prefer. If you add more it will be runny, less will make it thick.

Haphazardly ice your cookies, the more imperfect the better cause it gives the effect of melted snow.

While you are icing your cookies, place a few large marshmallows on a plate and microwave them on high for about 20 seconds. They should puff up a some but they will shrink back down if you let them sit for a bit! Before you pick up a marshmallow grease your fingers with some cooking spray first. They can be very sticky! Place it on the iced cookie. Decorate the face with brown or blue jimmies for the eyes and an orange one for the nose. Different color ones as the buttons. Let set up and enjoy!!!

Thank you to all who entered the giveaway! The winner of the Flannel Froggy Children's Blanket using random.org is #1 HB Send me your address and I'll have it in the mail asap! Congratulations!!!

A Giveaway

I have been in such a good mood lately. Why? Well, I am no longer a regular bus driver, I got my special needs route back 3 weeks ago! I went from having 85 kids to having 7....ah, it's so nice! NO MORE STRESS!!!

So I decided to do what we blogging woman do best when we we are happy and excited....we have a giveaway!

I am giving away this adorable flannel children's blanket handmade by me. One side is camouflage with frogs and the other is a warm cream.

It measures 36x42 To enter all you have to do is leave me a comment.

Here is a close up of the froggy fabric. It is very soft & quite warm. I think it will make a little boy, or girl for that matter, very happy!



I'll pick a winner using random.org this Friday, December 17. I will announce the winner at 5:30 that evening. GOOD LUCK!

Camo Bunko

Since November Bunko fell on the opening weekend of deer season here in Arkansas, the theme had to be Camo or some type of hunting related.

In case your eyes are old like mine, my shirt reads, "Don't you wish your girlfriend could HUNT like me"

You know us crazy women...we had to do something goofy! So some of us posed with Jennifer's gun...
Naomi wore her hubby's uniform...her mother came, she was visiting from Atlanta.

Becky & Sunny in there matching shirts...their shirts say, "This babe bags Bucks!" They looked cute!

Shawna & I posing with the gun, we were supposed to have a mean look on our faces, Shawna smiled and I'm not sure what I was doing.

The Bunko Girls

We were two girls short this time around. Naomi's mom played & we played with a ghost. For the record, I HATE when I have to play with the ghost, we never roll good.

Weekend Plans

John is headed to deer camp, it finally turned cold outside and it's the weekend....so what are my weekend plans? I'm going to finish the "IN LIKE FLYNN" quilt. It's going to be me, my sewing machine & lifetime television all weekend! (I love to listen to lifetime movies while I sew) Oh and my petting zoo of course!


Back in September my nephew, Flynn, who is 8 years old, asked me to make him a quilt for Christmas. How could I resist?! How many 8 year old boy's ask for a quilt for Christmas?!! They usually want video games, bicycles, and guns. He requested that it be red, white, & black. I headed to the fabric store to buy the material. While there I found some baseball fabric that I thought was darling. Flynn plays baseball so I thought I would incorporate it into the quilt...after all it is red, white, & black!



I'm not a quilter who goes by any certain pattern...I buy the magazines and look on line at all kinds of quilt blogs, but I usually just decide on the "look" of the quilt that I like and then draw up my own version and pattern. So with this one I decided to do big 14" square blocks with the baseball, red, & black and then sash & border it with the white.

Here is the quilt top pieced together.

All basted and ready to be quilted!

I can't wait to give it to him.
I hope I can wait for Christmas.
It's going to be a wonderful weekend!

Wicked

John and I went and saw the Broadway Musical, "Wicked", on Sunday. It was wonderfully Wicked!!! If you get the chance to go, GO! It is well worth the price of the tickets. John got the best seats...we were dead center, 7th row!

This is the map of OZ. The dragon moved and it's eyes were red in the opening act.

Glinda & Elphaba

The costumes were amazing! The actors were awesome! Everything about the musical was, well, Wicked!!!



Taken photos was strictly forbidden....um, yeah, tell that to a blogger! I pulled out my iphone and took 3 pictures. I really wanted to take more but I got nervous. They aren't the best...but the memories I have when I look at them are great!

It was such a wonderful evening!

Here I is...

So yeah, I lied, I said I would be keeping up with my blog more often....it's just ridiculously hard sometimes to get on here and write. My life isn't that interesting anymore....it's just me & John and our petting zoo. I work, he works, we clean, he hunts, I sew, I quilt....that's about as exciting as our life is now. But hey, I LOVE our life, boring as it may be. No really, it's not always boring....I think.....

I committed to this picture a day on Facebook. It is extremely hard sometimes to try to figure out what to capture & post. The other day I posted this cute fabric I ordered from
Fat Quarter Shop whenever they have their 50% off Moda fabrics I get all excited!! I'm making a quilt for my sister's kids who live in New Hampshire with this "wee woodland" fabric.



Meg has been in Spain for a month and a half now and her room is exactly as she left it....a mess! HAH! It's really not that messy. The bed needs to be washed and made and the bathroom needs to be cleaned and a little dusting is in need. Easy peasy....it's just been easier to keep the door shut! It's on my "to do list" for this weekend.

Reeses got neutered on Tuesday. Bless his little balls....I mean Heart....he was so groggy and walked all funny when John brought him home. He looked so pissed at us. Here he is passed out in his bed.
So I started quilting my "curly girl" quilt a few weeks ago. Here it is on the machine with Meg's crazy cat, Alice, who thinks she has to be right by my machine every. time. I. sew!
So I was just happily stippling along (actually the stitch is called meandering...but anyway) and my thread kept breaking....I would get frustrated and re-thread the machine. Finally after the umpteenth time, I took the quilt off the machine and realized the bobbin had been birdnesting for quite awhile. I took a deep breath, folded up the quilt, and laid it on the bed. I haven't touched it since. It's going to take me about 2 hours to rip out all the stitches.

:( Not Fun!

So I picked up my material for my "Stacked Coin" quilt that I was planning on selling. Here is the front of the quilt and that's Tick Tock looking at me.

Here is the backside. Well, I didn't sell it....John & I both fell in love with it, and it gets loved every night when we sit down to watch TV. This one I stippled and it is the best stippling job I've done thus far.

So there ya go. Not as interesting a life as some, but it's my life and I'm enjoying every single minute of it!

The Mad Quilter

21 years

Our baby girl, Tori, turned 21 on October 16th.
It's quite weird that our children are both legal adults now. It seems so surreal.


Here she is opening up her birthday card from her daddy & me. That's my futile attempt at drawing a bird. (Tori calls me momma bird & I call her bebe bird)

She seemed confused when she was looking at the gift inside...it was an airplane ticket from Little Rock to Spain.
Silly girl thought it was real for a moment (it was dark in the restaurant) She was thinking OMG! You bought me a ticket...Um, I haven't picked the days yet....
We are buying her round trip ticket to Spain so she can visit her sister this summer for a month. They will be backpacking around Europe! Look at that smile...I think she liked her gift!

Tori didn't order a drink on her 21st (she actually was feeling a bit under the weather) but Bonefish gave her a box of chocolates!

We went back to Grandma's house and had birthday cake.

I wonder what she wished for?!

Daddy & his baby monkey!

Momma & her bebe bird!

Grandma & Tori!!!

Nick, Tori, Me, & John

It was a great night. But honestly, if felt weird not having Meg there to celebrate with us. I know it was hard on Tori. My girls are best friends, they are twin souls.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Tori!

this summer

I made a memory quilt out of some of my dad's old clothes. I surprised my mother with it on the 4th anniversary of his passing.




It was one of the hardest things I have ever made. Every time I would iron the clothes I would smell my dad. It was just overall a very emotional experience.

I taught Meg how to make a quilt this summer as well.

I was very impressed with her quilt! She is a quick learner. She made this baby quilt for a couple that she worked with.

(back of quilt)

I am currently working on 3 quilts. Two of them I am planning on selling....well, I'm going to attempt to sell them. One is a 'stacked coin' pattern and the other is a 'winter storybook quilt'.

Life...

Since Meg left for Spain the house is quieter, the kitchen stays clean, her car is always parked in the driveway, and John & I don't get meals prepared for us anymore! We both miss her morning eggs and potatoes....and I miss my morning coffee and conversation with Hillary...we became very close this summer, and I have to say, I am happy that she is a part of Meg's life! She is a wonderful woman!

Life has gone back to the way it was before she moved in for the summer. We are empty-nesters once again. We work our different schedules, not seeing each other for days at a time, spending all of Sunday alone, since this is the only entire day we have together, and then doing it all over again.

Meg started a blog....unlike her mother, she is an amazing writer!! She majored in Creative Writing...you can visit her here if you'd like, and read about her adventures in Spain.

I know my posts have been far and few between...I'm going to try to be a better blogger since Meg is in Spain...that way she can read about what is going on over here in our lives.

Meg is on the plane

Destination - Spain!

Time - 1 year.

Purpose - Teaching English to ages 6-12

(Zach, Meg & Hillary)

Meg got on the plane at 5:00 am this morning. I can't help but cry as I sit here and type this blog post out. I am going to miss her greatly. I am so proud beyond words of the woman that she has become. It's going to be tough not being able to pick up the phone & call whenever I want to or send/receive text messages 10+ times a day!! She is going to be 4,000 miles away from me for a year! Before we left for the airport she left notes on the counter top one for each of us...her sister, Tori, me & her daddy. Needless to say, I cried my eyes out when I picked it up....and the first line I read was...."First of all, stop crying!" haha She knows me to well.

The hardest thing about being a mother is the letting go. I know she is 22 years old, an adult, but she will always be my little girl.

Big Ben

We said goodbye to our precious BenBen on Friday... 8/27/2010.

Ben had a major seizure and was just unable to recover from it.
He is buried in the backyard next to our Boxer, Soxebaby.
He will be missed!

Lap quilt

I found this hand dyed fabric on-line at Fat Quarter Shop & I fell in love with it. I knew immediately I wanted to make a lap quilt for John to lay on the couch.

This is my first stipple quilt...it took me 3 hours to stipple it. It was a lot of work but well worth the overall look of the quilt.

It has now become one of my favorites!

Sports Bunko

Augusts Bunko theme was "Sports."

Beth always has the best ideas....she put on make-up to make her look really tan!

It was Naomi's bunko month...but since her house is being renovated we had it at my house.

I borrowed this cheer-leading outfit from my neighbor. The pom poms were Meg's when she cheered in jr. high.

Jennifer wore her sons basketball uniform!

It was another fun girls night! I didn't win, again!