Last week when I was getting my stuff ready to spend Saturday in Moses Lake for our monthly (mostly monthly anyway) scrap day, I got an invitation to spend the night at Jane’s house (http://neighborjanepayne.blogspot.com/) Friday night. One of the “Bellingham girls” (Sonja Prink) had on her bucket list the chance to spend the night at Jane’s. We had a wonderful time and Jane & Calvin were  the perfect hosts! I always thought Calvin was a shy man – NOT! He’s a hoot!

Back L-R: Me, Donna, Sonja, Nicole

Front L-R: Sandy, Deb, Lexi

We also celebrated Deb’s birthday while we were there! Jane made lemon cupcakes with a secret surprise inside each cupcake – Lindor truffles. I have never tasted anything sooooooooo good! You can find her recipe here: http://neighborjanepayne.blogspot.com/search?q=lemon+cupcakes.

However, my creative juices just weren’t flowing Saturday! I’m still working on my Australia 2009 scrapbook and the only thing left to work on is the day we spent at the Australia Zoo. I did take my knitting with me so I could work on my sock a little! Even though I didn’t get much done, it was fun to just visit with everyone and see everything they were working on.

And today I just had some exciting news – Ree Drummond (Pioneer Woman) is coming to Seattle in April! I see a drive across the state to meet her and have her sign both of her cookbooks! I use her first cookbook a lot and have already used her 2nd cookbook. As a matter of fact, I can honestly say that her cookbooks are my favorite at the moment!

… and finally finished it last year!

When I was a junior in high school, my grandma asked if I wanted to make a quilt out of her scraps. She said she would help me cut out all the fabric and then show me how to stitch it together (by hand only). Grandma’s material was polyester double-knit and she had a lot of it! The pattern was Grandmother’s Flower Garden. I was able to get about 3/4′s of it stitched together before I started my senior year in high school and lost interest. I boxed everything up and completely forgot about it until 2005. Jim was being transferred to Scottsdale, Arizona and I was going through my craft stuff to see what I wanted to take with me. I decided to take this quilt with me and work on it down there since I wouldn’t be working.

After I finished stitching all the pieces together, I discovered that grandma and I had cut out enough pieces for a KING size quilt (it fits a queen size bed as a bedspread)! Upon the recommendation of the ladies at the fabric store, I used a very light weight t-shirt fabric since it would move with the polyester double-knit.

For the quilting, I stitched inside every hexagon (again by hand only). I set up my PVC quilt stand behind the couch and every night as Jim & I watched TV I would stitch. By the time I got the quilting done, I was sick of it and put it away for about 4 years before finally putting the binding on and getting it finished.

I’m so glad I finally finished it. I’m sure grandma would be so proud of me if she were still alive! Every time I look at it, I can see her in my mind’s eye wearing the dresses she made out of those scraps. Some of the scraps were things she made for me and my cousins. I even added some scraps from my mother-in-law’s scrap box of things she had made for my daughter when she was little. And my mother-in-law would especially be proud of me since I didn’t use the sewing machine on any of it. She always said quilts should only be hand sewn.

And a close up of the stitching inside each hexagon.

When Jim & I were remodeling the house last year, we were also trying to purge stuff. We’d had two places since 1999 and now we had too much stuff. So, while I was going through boxes, I came across the boxes of yarn that my father-in-law had given me after my mother-in-law died in 1998. She had two afghans started (which I finished and posted about last year) and black, gray and two shades of lime green set aside for another afghan, but no pattern. Since Christmas 2011 was all about being homemade, I decided to replace the green yarn for light purple and make an afghan (using the Chevron pattern) for Kevin & Laura (purple is Laura’s favorite color). I made it extra large so they could use it on their king size bed if they wanted.

I had BIG plans of getting lots of knitting and quilting done when we were in California for a month. Unfortunately, I barely touched my knitting and the only time I came into contact with my quilting was when I moved my bag around in the trailer! Now that we’re home I took the time to finish my red & green short cuff socks!

I started my third pair of socks last week and just finished the first sock yesterday. I decided to go with a short cuff this time! And now I can finally do the Magic Loop cast-on, heel and Russian bind-off WITHOUT pulling up the you-tube videos!  Yay for me!

It started snowing this week (Tuesday night) and didn’t really stop until last night (Friday). It’s beautiful to look at but I have no desire to be out in it. We did venture out Wednesday morning to get hair cuts and pick up a few groceries in town but otherwise I’ve only stepped outside to get a few pictures.

The snow had started to drift and block our way into the house by the time we got back from town Wednesday. Jim had to shovel us in (versus shoveling us out)!

Thursday brought even more drifting snow. My poor little pink flamingo is getting buried!

By Friday, Jim had shoveled at least 5 times and it was piling up!

The following are my favorite snow pics! You can see the snowy cliff wall above the arborvitaes. We haven’t ventured up the switchbacks since Wednesday so have no idea what kind of shape they’re in. I do know that we haven’t had mail serve since Wednesday and the garbage man couldn’t make it down either.

It was still snowing pretty hard late Friday afternoon.

Finally, late Friday night the snow had stopped. I love this picture of my little bistro table and bench on the deck!

It’s Saturday morning and already up to 24 degrees – the warmest it’s been in a week! However, Accuweather says we’re going to have more snow today! Glad I’m retired and don’t have anywhere to go!

I was watching Chef Anne Burrell on the Food Network channel last week and she was making Italian focaccia bread. I’ve been trying to find a recipe for a certain bread that’s made in Italy but hadn’t had any luck – until I saw this show. So, last night I made it.  Oh my, is it ever delicious … and, Kevin & Laura, it tastes just like the bread you bought every day when you lived in Florence!

Fortunately I’d watched Anne make this bread so I knew to spread my fingers out and make “finger holes” all the way through the dough when I was stretching the dough to fit the jelly roll pan.

After it’s doubled in size, topped with kosher salt, olive oil and baked, this is the final result:

We couldn’t wait for it to cool before digging right in!

I finished my second pair of socks earlier this week. I’ve even worn and washed them. They are super comfortable. For anyone wanting to knit socks, the toe up sock pattern using circular needles is definitely the way to go! I’ve already started on my 3rd pair!

Another going away gift I received when I left my job was from my manager, Leslie. We knitted together every Thursday during lunch and she knows how hard it was for me to learn how to make socks! She gave me this wonderful wool yarn and stainless steel circular knitting needles. Jim loves wool socks but since Leslie bought me pink yarn (hm, I wonder how she knew I loved pink!!!), he won’t be getting these when they’re done!

Thank you so much, Leslie! I’m almost done with my second pair of socks and I’ll definitely be starting with this yarn this week!

One of the attorneys I worked with the last 2+ years gave me a great, thoughtful going away gift. Little did he know that I didn’t make pies! Shortly after Jim & I were first married, I made a pie. After the first bite Jim compared it to his mom’s pies, and the comparison wasn’t good. My mother-in-law was the world’s best pie maker so I never made a pie crust again. Until today!

The gift contained a pie crust mix, a jar of pear/cranberry filling and the “Pie and Pastry Bible” cookbook! I’ve already found several things I’m going to try! Anyway, here’s my finished pie.

The pie was delicious!  Thanks, John!