If you do stuff, stuff gets done.......

If you do stuff, stuff gets done.......

Monday, March 28, 2011

more sewing and a little baking




















 I finished 3 more blouses -one is a retro print dotted Swiss, one is black polka dots and the other is a pastel floral print.
























 A pair of apple green pillow cases for my daughter -they have new bedding but the set did not come with as many pillow cases as they needed.
Pillow cases are very quick and easy to sew up.























 For our master bath, I used a yard sale sheet to sew up a new window curtain and add a matching valance to a shower curtain we already had. The wreath is from silk hydrangeas used at a Elizabeth's parents wedding 4 years ago.
I like the lighter, summery look it added to this bathroom.
























close up of the sheet



















my version of a WW chocolate chip cookie recipe  -I baked a quadruple batch on Saturday and most went in the freezer.

2 T butter, softened
2 t canola or vegetable oil
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 t vanilla
1/8 t salt
1 large egg white
3/4 C flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 c chocolate chips - I used the mini chips
(I usually bake this recipe times 4, that uses the whole bag of mini chocolate chips, a whole stick of butter and I use 2 whole eggs instead of just whites)
preheat oven to 375.
In a medium bowl, cream together butter, oil, brown sugar and vanilla. Add egg white or eggs if you make more than one batch and mix thoroughly.
Stir in flour, salt and baking soda.
Stir in chips.
Drop by rounded (1 inch or so) balls onto baking sheet (I usually line the sheets with parchment)
Bake until just golden for 6-8 minutes depending on the size of the cookie. Mine are pretty small, about 1 inch scoops of dough and a quadruple recipe yields about 85 cookies.
Cool on wax paper or a wire rack.
I like these better than regular choc chip cookies are they taste good and are sweet but not too sweet.
























My anniversary roses are about a week old and are getting a little wilted, some might say they are  a lot wilted. But I did not want to throw them out just yet so I trimmed the best ones down to about 8 inches and put them in a little round vase -the vase is saved from the wedding of Gavin's parents.
Now I can still enjoy them for a few more days.

That is most of the recent projects from my home -I am in a sewing mood and may start a few more things this afternoon,  after I do a good housecleaning from one end of this house to the other. 

Hope you all are having a nice start to you new week!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

this week

It is time to put away the St. Patrick's decorations and get started with the Easter decorations.  I will show those soon. 


I have no idea how the pansies I planted back in the fall survived the extremely cold winter, but they mostly did and even seem to be thriving. 


Colorful backyard
I mowed it for the first time this season.  The lawn chairs got a fresh coat of spray paint, 2 are now black and the other 3 are red, blue and apple green. 
With all the different color toddler toys,  it seemed pointless to worry about everything matching. 
  


our uncle went to the Denver Zoo and brought back these shirts for us.




Jeff and I celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary this week. 
He gave me a big bouquet of pink roses,
I baked him a  cherry pie. 
Gavin does not know what anniversaries are but he does know what pie is and he was very happy to have a little slice after we ate supper.