Back in the saddle

Alrighty. Break ups are hard - yes. Recovery is long - yes. BUT moving forward is the only option so, here I go.

I'm determined to not let this lil blog get covered in dust. I have a lot of things to add here and as long as I can keep my hours a work to a healthy 45-50/week I'm going to bless you all with my thoughts. HA! Whatever...


And for my next post. A quilt.





I just finished this sucker in a hair under 1.5 years. I did the top summer 09 while in the Evergreen state and finally made the time to find a quilter here in UT. Thanksgiving at my moms gave me the time and the sewing machine to finish the edges. No close ups please, the stiching is all over the place.

Toodles.

Domestic Success: Shepherd's Pie

Today I decided to write down all the random things I cook up in my little kitchen and maybe one day I'll print them all out and give them to you all as a gift... or something.




Yesterday: Shepherd's Pie.
1lb Ground turkey; browned in a deep-ish pot
1 can corn
frozen green peas (about the same amount as the corn)
fresh mushrooms sauteed in a little butter and a lot of garlic
some chopped red ontion sauteed with the mushrooms
1 can Cream of Mushroom soup
4 large-ish red potatoes, boiled and mashed (with the skin) with 1Tbs butter and 1/4c. milk
Shreaded Medium cheddar cheese
Grated Parmesean cheese
S&P

After the turkey is cooked through + condensed CofM soup and veggies in the same deep pot. Stir till mixed. Spread the mashed potatoes nice and smooth over the top.

Cover + bake for however long... everything is cooked already so just till it's heated through. I had the oven at about 275 for about an hour.

In the last 5-8 mins, remove the lid, spread the cheddar and sprinkle the parm. Turn to Broil and let the cheese melt and brown. ***Keep an eye on it so you don't burn it!

It turned out really great and is a perfect fall 'one course' dinner.

Two Quickies...

Here are a two projects I did in the last week.

Numero Uno:
Zina mentioned that she wanted a autumn garland table runner. I thought I'd get her one as a thank you for the last 7 months of living in her house but had little luck. THEN. Joann's had all their "Autumn Inspirations" 70% off and I was like "I'm in." Here's what Zina has on her table now....

All that was only $20, even the vase.

Numero dos:
A few days ago I came upon this blog which lead me to this post and ultimately to this tutorial. I fell in love with the little pouch and knew it was just what I needed to make to replace my sorry, too full bag with all my nail stuff in it.
Behold the glorious results....

The linen on the outside is printed with silver metallic (a sample from me old work), and the lining is the leftovers from my flower pillow.

I went from this:

To this:

It was really easy to make. I've never put a zipper on anything but I did today. The whole thing took about 2 hrs. but it'll be quicker next time.

My New Addition.

Last week I woke up with the need to make a pillow to go with my new bedding. (Oh, did I mention that I got my new bedding? I blah blah blahed about it awhile back and started saving the moola and now my new bedding and I are loving life). It just needed something else so I started this lil guy....

White felt petals, an iridescent button in the middle and some satin ribbon around the belly. It was SUPER easy to make- I didn't have a pattern or anything. I traced circles on teal fabric to make sure the petals stayed in line, very lightly glued them down with Tacky Glue to make it easier to sew, sewed them down and POOF. Done.

Cept now, I think I wanna make this pillow.... it's even shown in the perfect color.

Crochet'd it myself

So forever ago I posted about something called a "Draft Dodger". Well, I decided last week that I'd try to make one myself. I do, afterall, know a basic crochet stitch and really, how hard could it be? My friend Kacey and I have been getting so excited about fall and this was my first attempt to welcome the season.

Behold....

Her name was Lola

A little slice of heaven! Dominique and James threw a baby shower for Sierra today. We all work together and it was fun to hang out with a bunch of the girls (and James) outside of work.

This is Dom. She is HILARIOUS!!
James "Kiss the Cook" Daniel BBQ'n up our lunch.

This is where the slice of heaven comes in. Dom needed someone to make a cake so I said I'd do it and boy oh boy I was in domestic diva heaven!! I love doing stuff like this- it's just so good for my soul. And when it turns out something like I pictured in my head it's even better!

Vanilla cake with homemade blueberry filling and coconut buttercream frosting. VOILA!!

I made the cake stand too. Value Village + E600 epoxy = super fabulous cake stand.

Meet Sierra. She is so great and will be a fantastic mom. I picture her as the one with the little girl that has the most darling outfits on all the time. I made her a... thing with the baby's name on it. I hope she doens't change the baby's name because that thing took like 5 hours to make- but it turned out perfectly.

The cake actually tasted pretty good too.