Gingerbread Train

Grson I and I spent a couple of days in the past 2 weeks making a gingerbread train instead of a house. It came from a Wilton kit that contained everything that you would need to create the engine and coal car (except "coal"). I and I used the first day to assemble the train but I added some ready to use frosting in a can to make snow around the train and attach a few of the pieces together. The kit's icing was in bags that were supposed to let you just squeeze it out but no tips to make it easier. Good thing I have some cake decorating supplies on hand to make things go a bit easier. I was a great helper and the next week after the icing had hardened we decorated with more frosting and lots of candies that came in the kit. Mr Creative had the idea to use licorice for the coal car and I used some icing in a tube to secure it all in. I was glad they have "extra" candy in the kit as the bubblegum was irresistible LOL

Here we are all done and proud of our work!
It was fun to find that I's special ornament for 2010 is this Santa in a candy train. I guess Hallmark and I were in 'sync this year! LOL

A Visit With Santa

When your youngest child is 21, there isn't much of a point to asking him to take a Santa picture! LOL So, now it is Belle's turn to take an annual pic with Santa. Each year Petsmart uses pictures with Santa Paws (or Claws) as a way to raise funds for homeless pets by offering a pic with Santa and your pet. Belle is not so sure she wants to be there but after 3 pics settled down enough for this one.
Good thing I didn't try to take the cats too! LOL

Erin has a New Giveaway

DCWV's Erin has a new giveaway this week. HERE'S the link!

Show and Tell From Tues

My quilt friends are so good at getting things done! I did have a show and tell but didn't give my camera to anyone to take a picture of me! LOL
L to R
Top A shows another of a donation baby quilt, CN made a repro of a repro mixed up piecing and all, C shows us a darling little girl quilt meant for a grd's wall, JB is proud to show her finished Woman's Work by Lori Smith and she personalized a stitchery.
Middle CJ did this version of an orange peel in red and white, CN and her Mystery table runner so beautifully finished (I still have to finish mine but it is close),
Bottom PN shows her finally completed millennium plus ten quilt and next her BOM for this year Victory Quilts, one more for C is her 40 year quilt....she started it as a teen and finally finished it up this year with work from the 50's, 70's and today on it and RV shows us she completed her scalloped edge border from a workshop.

New Friends Christmas Party this and that

It was our annual Christmas party with New Friends Quilt Circle on Tuesday and we had a fun time. I loved all the great pot luck dishes the ladies brought. Such good cooks and a great variety so that there was something for everyone. I made a dish Cheesy Chicken and even though I had never made it before, I was confident that it would be good since it had chicken, cream cheese, shredded cheese and broccoli. DS A said it smelled awful but I got the last laugh as it was delicious LOL

I made this quick purse/tote from a panel I bought at Joann's the other day. I made sure to use some fusible fleece to give it some body and added the silk flower from my scrapbook supplies. I put some MaryEllen's Best Press in lavender, a lavender candle, and a bar of handmade lavender soap. That was my gift for the exchange. My friend TR got it and she said she liked it a lot. Shew....you never know about those kinds of gifts.

I can't seem to find any Christmas gift bags so I took a plain white one and supplies from my scrapbook stash and jazzed it up. Nice thing is that it also works for the Fantabulous Cricut blog's challenge this week.
Supplies: plain gift bag, pp DCWV Christmas 09 stack, ribbon American Crafts and stash, tag cut with my Cricut using the From the Kitchen cart.

A group of friends displaying their challenge projects. Everyone had the same center panel and then created a baby quilt from it. Great job everyone! Since the center fabric was many years old it was a challenge to find fabric to "match".
More photos from our show and tell to come.

Robert's Give Away

Ya, know I should keep this to myself so that I can have a better chance to win but on the otherhand...sharing it on my blog gives me an extra chance to win...LOL
So you see, it's a win-win for everyone.
Do you like great DCWV products? Then click here and see the great giveaway being sponsored by Roberts Crafts.

First Big Snow for the Winter

Took these about a week ago when we woke up to some light and fluffy snow outside.
You can see the trail made by the paper delivery guy as it was pretty late when he made it to the house that day.

Can I Ask A Favor?

I usually don't feel like I can ask for people to vote in a contest if I am the one who is in the contest. Kind of makes me feel icky LOL
I am asking if there are any of you who might be willing to help out my younger brother who is trying to win an opportunity to perform in front of some music industry "important people".
He has a video here and to vote you need to register (sorry about that) and then click on his video and vote by clicking on the arrow in the box with the number of votes.
His name is Raymondw and his song is Acoustic Jam for Winter Namm
If you don't that's OK...Just thought I would ask

This and That from Thanksgiving

This had to be the funniest cartoon I have seen in a long time. The little boy, Hammie, reminds me so much of my little 2 1/2 yr old grson A. I had to share.
When I was a girl my Mother would make pies, and not just on Thanksgiving like her daughter, LOL. When she was done with the pie dough there was always a bit left over and she would first make for us, and then later we (my sisters and I) would make these little cinnamon and sugar pies. I ended up having some dough left over and I made as a tribute to those days, a little turnover type pie.

I also tried something new this year. I have to admit I am not a fan of cranberry sauce. I like juice and drinks flavored with cranberry and also dried cranberries and also cranberry mustard made by Hickory Farms... but for sauce...eggghhh, not so much.
The one way I DO like it sort of is fresh made. Just cranberries, sugar and water but being a diabetic I really only eat a tiny bit and that is enough. This year I decided to use dehydrated apples for Mr Creative's apple pie and ended up with way too many for one pie. I had set them aside telling him to use them over some ice cream one day. I had just finished the fresh cranberry sauce and noticed those leftover apples and volia a new idea was formed.

It is very delicious and not any harder than just stirring the apples into the cranberries! I wonder if this is how the Pillsbury Bake Off winner starts out!? LOL

Erin at the DCWV blog is giving away some wonderful paper.
Visit the blog to see how you can win.
She also has a lovely idea for a place card for next year's table since Turkey day has come and gone! LOL

Ready for the End

I am catching up on a few events from this past week. Can you guess what we are waiting for? LOL
Yep, it's time for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows film part 1.
Grson N, me, son A's friend W and son A at the "midnight 30" opening day showing.

Tickets here are assigned a seat and that is my favorite way to go now. I am willing to pay the "convenience fee" of a dollar or two so that I know I have the best possible seats and no waiting in line. OK, I guess I am just getting old! LOL
I would give the show 4 out of 5 stars on the whole. The acting is really good and Harry, Hermione and Ron are all outstanding...I can hardly wait until spring for part 2. The reason I didn't give it a 5 is because of the parts that were left out or changed...I mean after all it really bugs me when a 30 second addition would have made such a difference. I guess when you are a big fan of the books you HATE to see anything left out! LOL
Mr Creative couldn't stay up that late so we are going on Sat to a matinee...costs less and no chance that he will fall asleep! LOL

Thank You Mrs Cubbisons!

So...after searching several stores for Peppridge Farms corn bread dressing I finally gave up and at the suggestion of my sister I bought 5 boxes of Jiffy Mix corn muffin and made two large pans of cornbread. Then of course it had to be crumbled up and allowed to dry, usually easy enough here in Utah. However, it was taking rather long so I decided to put the bread in the oven to hasten the drying.
Yeah, that worked great except when I was taking the pan with the largest amount of cornbread out of the oven...well you guessed it...from the picture you see it all piled up ready to toss in the garbage.
I was a bit worried since the stores were all crazy on Wed. afternoon, I just didn't want to have to go out to the store. Then just by chance I glanced up to an upper shelf in my pantry and there was the box of Mrs Cubbisons corn bread stuffing!
Hurrah I was saved and the casserole turned out wonderful!

We Are Thankful

So, it was only the three of us for Thanksgiving Dinner but that was OK. Oldest son and his family decided to stay home and relax and prepare their own dinner. That's what happens when your chicks are out of the nest isn't it?

Dinner time at our house. L to R: Son A loading up his plate, The family together ready to eat, bottom L to R: gr'son I and Belle after he helped me on Wed prepare a couple of dishes for our dinner and the big turkey ready to carve.

This was taken on Wed late afternoon and it was so beautiful that I had to share. I am thankful for my many blessings and one is to be living in this beautiful world...here in Utah even with the cold and snow.

Some Fun from the Scraproom

I don't have much to show from my scrapbooking room lately have I?
I got an email from the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge blog and thought I am going to do something just to have some fun in my scrapbook supplies LOL
The challenge used a cart that I don't own so I subbed out with what I have.

These are going to be place cards for the table. I think it will be just Mr Creative, youngest son A and I so I only made 3. They are easy enough if oldest son and family decide to come after all. LOL

They are pretty large...more like cards...but I wasn't in the mood to mess with small pieces last night. The metallic paper is some I bought several years ago that feels like a heavy vellum but is not opaque at all. It's a very pretty copper color and used for the shadow on the people and the Give Thanks. One thing that really bugs me is I must have used Bazzil cardstock as it was just loose in the stash and it really cuts so poorly with my Cricut! I like other brands much better and I have learned not to use it with less than 3 X's multi cut as it just leaves spots that are not cut through. I understand it has fibers that are not paper that gives it the lovely feel and look but it's not so great for the different cutters. Let me know if you have a trick to using it!
Supplies: card bases DCWV, pp Debbie Mumm Fall/Winter Holiday stack Joann's, cardstock, metallic vellum (??) A Child's Year and Designer Calendar Cartridges

OOOHHH Something for Christmas?

Trying to keep up with my goals for the month of Nov. instead of watching TV I used the BYU vs New Mexico game on the radio to work on this project. I didn't want to show too much as there is gifting involved LOL
I really love it when I can pull out the Christmas fabric bin and find exactly what I am looking for inside. I did purchase the cute candy cane stripe to go with the project but everything else is out of the stash/scraps.
I will have to wait to show the completed project until after I give it away but I thought I would show that I am doing something besides watching reality shows and eating bon-bons ( my bonus grson didn't even know what the heck a bon-bon is!) Just in case you are clueless about bon-bons here is a picture of some yummy looking ones!

Pictures from Texas

I am finally uploading the pictures from my trip to Texas to my external drive and thought I would share a few of my favorite pictures.
Most were taken a few days before I left to come home to Utah so they are pretty recent.
I was lucky to catch a smile from baby T as he was still a bit young to smile "on command" but I was patient and got one. DD and baby T, grson A after his helping make chocolate pie, and riding a large stuffed horse at Costco.

If You Want A Giggle

I just had to share a link to this Youtube!
Cowcat Herders!
Hope you laugh as much as I did

Blessing Day for T

Baby T was Blessed by his Father B and Grandfathers H and F


A few family pictures afterwords. Gotta love grson A styling his white athletic shoes!

L to R: Papa H, Daddy B, Grandpa F

A Few Pictures from Texas

Here are a few pictures from the last few days of my visit in San Antonio

We took a walk over to the Old Fort Sam Houston to feed the peacocks and deer and Grson A found the perfect place for a picture. His Grandpa Dougherty thinks this would be a great future for him! LOL

Mr. Creative showing our little baby T alongside the almost 21 lb turkey.

Grson A and his Daddy make up a favorite Thanksgiving pie for us to have for early Thanksgiving dinner.

A Finished Project!

Who would have thought that I would take to hand piecing like this!
I know that if I hadn't discovered InkLingo by Linda Franz, I wouldn't have the patience to do all the tracing, cutting and marking lines as you do with traditional hand piecing.
So while I was away in Texas to welcome my newest grandson T and having fun with his big brother A, I used some of the rare down-time to work on this little project.
I saw the table runner in American Patchwork and Quilting and knew that I could use the InkLingo method of printing the pieces onto the fabric and because it was a small project it makes the perfect take-along quilt.
I finished the last pieces today as I watched the ice skating on TV.
As you can see, there are tons of pieces but they went together quite nicely. As usual I learned as I went along the best way to put it together.

Here it is before pressing...

And after...I love the chain of stars effect.
The fabrics are from my stash and who knows which line they are from since I bought them as a set of fat quarters probably 4 years ago. The background is a lovely floral fusion print.
Now I have to figure how I will finish it. The original had a piano key border but I am not sure I want to do that. It will have to wait a bit until I get a few other things done first. LOL