Pasta and Dancing Hippos

Pasta and Dancing Hippos

I started this post a few days ago and didn't get very far :-) So will finish it up here before posting about the past weekend. 

This is a family favorite - Pepperoni Macaroni.  I found the recipe in a copy of Quick Cooking about 15 years ago and everyone liked it, especially Rebekah.  It is one of my 'comfort' dishes.  

I finished up this quilt square recently.  The theme for a stitch-along was Noah's Ark.  A stitch-along is not for a designated recipient but just everyone who wants to committing to stitch for a specific theme and the squares are all donated to a quilt charity - this one was for Love Quilts Brazil.   The squares will not necessarily be used in the same quilt but will just be kept on hand to fill in as needed to complete a quilt or for an emergency quilt.  
I thought this was a fun pattern - and kind of stretched the theme.  These two hippos thought they were going on a cruise :-)

12 Days of Charity - Day 3

Sending and receiving Christmas cards is one of the joys of the season.  I also love designing and making our Christmas cards every year.   We both come from large families and we also give cards to all the families at church so this year I made about 140 cards.

This year I am adding a new family to my Christmas card list.  Addie is a 6 year old little girl who is not expected to live for another Christmas.  Her family's request is for her to receive a 'lifetime of Christmas cards'.   Addie especially loves handmade cards or artwork by other children.

You can read her story here - today.com
or visit her Facebook page

I'll be sending Addie a card  - won't you consider joining me?  The card does not have to be handmade.  The family appreciates anything they receive.

The Christmas card I will be sending Addie and her family -

This is a stamp set I bought many years ago.  I love the calico angel and letters.  The ruffle is made by using the scallop punch on a long strip or paper and then crimping it with the crimping tool. The crimping makes it more flexible to glue around the back of the oval.  

The card has a surprise - a pop-up trio of calico hearts.   I will put some tabs on it so they know how to pull it to make the hearts pop up.  I love making the pop-ups but always wonder if the recipient figures it out :-)   I hope this will bring a smile to Addie's face as well as her mom and sisters.

12 Days of Charity - Day 2

The Salvation Army is not a new charity for me.  Every year while shopping I would drop some change in their familiar red kettle and wish the volunteer bell ringer a 'Merry Christmas'.
Occasionally when I clean out closets or de-clutter the house, I throw the items in a box and arrange to have the Salvation Army pick up the box(es).

This year I had a new experience with the Salvation Army.  I was a volunteer bell ringer!  Our church arranged to ring the bells over several hours and asked for volunteers for 30 minute intervals.   My daughter and I took one of the slots.

First, we are thankful that it was a warm day - we didn't even need our coats.  We greeted everyone we saw with "Merry Christmas" and got lots of smiles, thank yous and Christmas greetings in return.  A large percentage of the people coming and going stopped to add to the kettle.  Some with a few coins and some with $5 bills.  At one time we even had 4 people standing in line to add to the kettle.  What a great thing to see with the economic hardships we hear of every day.

It was especially heartwarming to see children putting in a few coins.  Kudos to the parents who are bringing them up to give to others.  Charity does begin at home.

I was curious as to how the red kettles came about and found this article describing the founder.
http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/red-kettle-history

And as promised - here is another Christmas card design.

This card was based on an original designed by my niece, Jamie.  Using the Gorgeous Grunge "splatter" I made a tree of Old Olive.  I added some Cherry Cobbler stars and the sentiment.  This is mounted on some Cherry Cobbler DSP and then the Old Olive card base.   A fun card and no two would be exactly the same.

12 Days of Charity

I've decided to highlight 12 different charities each day until Christmas  - hence the 12 Days of Charity.   The first charity is one that is new to me.   This is the House of Hope which is a soup kitchen for the Community Hope Center.  My friend Natalie and her family volunteer there regularly.   Each week they provide meals on Mon, Tue, and Wed.  Next week (12-15 through 12-17) they will be serving a full Christmas dinner from 10 am to 1 pm.   Wednesday is also a toy gift drive so they are expecting a large group that day. If you live in the area and want to help them out, let me know and I can connect you to Natalie.


They can use help with prep/serving/clean up from 9-2 on Wednesday and can still use food donations.  I will be working so can't help out with the work but did make some cookies to send with my daughter who is going to volunteer on Wednesday.


I made some Christmas Krinkles.  This is a recipe I have had for years but they were called Whippersnappers.  The recipe -
1 box of cake mix (dry)
2 cups non-dairy whipped topping (like Cool-Whip)
1 egg
powdered sugar

I found this Christmas cake mix at Aldi's.  Since the box held two 1/2 cake mixes (one red and one green) I bought 2 and make 2 batches of the cookies.

Bekah and I worked together and made approximately 8 dozen cookies to send to House of Hope on Wednesday.  It certainly made the task easier and more fun having someone to help in the kitchen. 

We also have 2 dozen cookies to take to the church for the fellowship time after the choir's cantata on Sunday evening.   Aren't these pretty cookies?

And since some of you are interested in card making, and someone (Steph) has noticed I haven't posted any cards lately, I will post a Christmas card design with each of the 12 charities.

This card uses some retired Christmas DSP but could be made with any designs you have.  The DSP is mounted on a single piece of Old Olive and a piece of Cherry Cobbler.  I had some gold ribbon from some other project that I used to give it a little accent.   I like the sentiment with opposite corners rounded.

Come back tomorrow for another charity.

Keepsake Box for Charity

This is another Keepsake Box that I made for a fundraiser for a former co-worker. Her baby was born prematurely after she had been hospitalized for weeks - and only lived for a day. He was so very tiny! Her friends and co-workers planned a fundraiser for this weekend. I am donating this for the silent auction. You can find the directions for the Keepsake Box here.

The box is filled with 25 handmade cards. Here are a few of them. It was so hard to choose which of my cards to put in the box but I have a good mix of holiday, thank you, birthday, friend to friend and blank notes. This was a good way to use up some of the retired papers - but still a great item for the silent auction.

I have also been playing - this card was inspired by another demo who used the Presto paper and the French Foliage stamp set to make some fall-inspired designer paper. Don't you love it?
Stamp Sets: French Foliage, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Card Stock: Cajun Crush, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White, Wild Wasabi, Presto Paper
Ink: Cajun Craze, Early Espresso
Punches: Large Oval, Two Step Bird, Decorative Label, Modern Label
Ribbon: Retired Chocolate Chip 1 inch double stitched

Here is another one with the designer presto paper.
Stamp Set: Teeny Tiny Wishes
Card Stock: Cajun Craze, Tangerine Tango, Early Espresso, Whisper White, Presto Paper
Ink: Cajun Craze, Early Espresso
Ribbon: Early Espresso 5/8 inch taffeta
Punch: Modern Label

This one was the result of playing with vellum - stamping one leaf on one side of the vellum, another leaf on the back of the vellum and the third leaf on the white card stock. These were layered behind the punched hole and them a piece of the card stock was placed inside the card to cover the back of the white card stock.
I also colored the ribbon using my ink pad and a sponge dauber, then rubbing it with rubbing alcohol to even out the color.
Stamp Set: French Foliage
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Not Quite Navy and More Mustard
Card Stock: More Mustard, Not Quite Navy, Whisper White
Punch: 2 3/8 inch Scallop Circle, Scallop Oval

So, I am ready for Thanksgiving and starting on some Christmas cards later this week! Be sure to check out my calendar blog for the Christmas Stamp-a-stack and the Technique Tuesday for October - you won't want to miss those!

Silent Auction Item

There is a benefit Trivia Night for a friend who used to work with me and I decided to donate some things for the Silent Auction. I went through my stash of handmade cards and pulled out a variety but then needed something nice to put them in - so off to the drawing board. I took the instructions I found online for a card box that was only about an inch deep and redesigned it to be 3 inches deep - enough to hold 25 of my handmade cards plus envelopes.

Isn't it cute? I used Certainly Celery and So Saffron card stock with the Shades of Spring designer paper. The stamp set is Merci which is no longer available. I used the ticket corner and round corner punches. The ribbon is 5/8 inch satin Pretty in Pink. I pulled 22 cards from my stash with a variety of birthday, thank you, thinking of you, praying for you and a couple get well. I wanted to add a few for kids so here is what I put together to make a total of 25.

This one uses a stamp that I picked up at a craft store. Card stock used was Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, Brilliant Blue, Garden Green and Yoyo Yellow. Punches were the small star, modern label, ticket corner and heart to heart. I colored the image using the watercolor pencils.

This one uses the stamp set, Just Soccer, and an alphabet set that I found on E-Bay. Card stock was Whisper White, Read Red, and Yoyo Yellow.

This paper and Happy Birthday stamp are some things I picked up at a craft store. I combined it with Gable Green and Brocade Blue card stock. I used the ticket punch. It was fun putting together this box and the cards - hope they bring lots of money for the benefit.

Two More Hats

Here are 2 more hats that I made for the crisis pregnancy center. The green one is of a cotton yarn that is really soft. It was so nice to work with that as it felt so soft on my hands :-)
I have 12 hats now to use as prototypes for our knitting ministry - can't wait to get the other ladies started on this projects and compare all our different hats.

Easter Bonnets

We spent a quiet Easter at home. DD17 and I watched several movies on the Hallmark channel and I knitted hats for the pregnancy center. So here are my Easter bonnets.

All except the yellow were done in a bulky yarn - just using up some scraps I have from other projects. They would make nice warm winter hats. All of these are made with the tie at the top - some have cuffs and some don't. Of course, any of them can be worn with or without the cuff rolled up.
These hats work up so quickly they are addictive :-)

Baby Hats

I have been knitting baby hats to be donated to a pregnancy center that our church supports. The ladies at church as part of our Titus 2 ministry, are going to have a 'knitting night' and make hats or blankets for the pregnancy center. Some of us who know how to knit will teach others so I have been looking for a very basic hat pattern. I found a pattern at Lion's Brand, Baby Hat - O Natural!, and made some variations on the pattern.


Here is whatI made on Thursday and Friday. They work up really fast since there is no shaping.
The shades of blue and white on on the right side are pretty much according to the pattern except I only made one pom-pom for the top. For the varigated pastel one, I ran a piece of yarn around the top about an inch from the edge and pulled it tight. I did the same for the white one with the eyelets around the bottom - I plan to run a pink ribbon through the eyelets and tie a bow off center on the front of the hat. The blue and yellow stripe one is my favorite. I made eyelets around the top about an inch before the end and then made a yellow cord by crocheting a chain. I ran the cord through the eyelets and tied the bow.
To make an eyelet you do a yarn over followed by knit 2 together. That way you have a small hole but you do not increase the number of stitches. I did this about every third stitch. So for that row the pattern would be k1, *yo, k2 tog, k1, repeat from * to the end.
I may have to try the booties and sweater that are pictured with the hat pattern. They are very basic also. I found a really good buy of baby yarn on E-Bay so I have plenty of yarn to play with.

Missions Conference and a treat for me

This week is our Mission Conference at church and last night was seminar night. We had 15 different speakers who talked about their 'missions' or opportunities for us to serve. It was very interesting. The sessions are divided into 5 categories (3 each) such as Global Missions, Local Missions, Evangelism, (don't know what all 5 were). Then they are set up in 5 rooms and 3 time slots. Each person can choose which session they want to attend in each time slot - attending 3 sessions in the evening.

Going into the evening I was only interested in the College Ministry session - mostly because I have daughters that fall into that category and can see there is a need for something to help them stay connected to the church family. Our church is also located within 3 miles of a state university. The church in the past has tried several different ministries reaching out to the students there but nothing has lasted long term. Usually the leaders moved on to somewhere else and the ministry fell to the wayside. The session is wanting to come up with something that the church can sustain. It was a good session and there were several recent college grads who had a lot to input into the discussion. DD19 and her boyfriend attended with me and they had some input - mostly "FOOD" - if you offer home cooked meals you will get them to come :-)

Since DD17 was working in the nursery, I had to stay for the whole evening so I chose the Bethany Christian Services for my second session. It was good - but she should have handed out tissues at the door as we came in. She showed a short video (Everything to Me) to a song written by a man to his birth mother thanking her for making the sacrifice to give him a better life. The video showed a young lady who was pregnant, went into labor, delivered and gave her baby up for adoption. The man's story followed in a second video (Story behind Everything to Me) One of the young ladies in our church within the last month had delivered a beautiful baby that she dearly loved and wanted to keep - but knowing she could not do so financially (unemployed and a student) she gave it to a family through Bethany. So the video really hit home to many of us in the room who have struggled with this young lady in her decision.
The speaker was very interesting, telling about domestic, global and embryo adoptions. They will not consider a couple for adoption unless they are actively involved in a church so that is a comfort to the birth mothers who use their service. Most adoptions today are open adoptions with the birth mother choosing the parents and allowed to see the child at least once a year. The young lady in our church chose a family who will allow her to see the baby 4 times a year and live about 3 hours away.
This morning I found the lyrics to Everything to Me. I love the song!


The third and final session is where I was given a 'treat'. I planned to go to the session on the Chippewa mission trip that the church is planning for this summer. For many years the church has gone to the Lummi Reservation in Washington. The past couple years entire families have gone and it is quite expensive to fly a family of four - so the church has been looking for something within a reasonable driving distance and with a more flexible time frame. So I was just curious about the new location and people. But when I got to that room it was already packed with pre-teens - so I went to my second choice - The Gideons.

One of the men in our church is a member of The Gideons. They are an international group of men who promote God's Word in many ways. He showed slides and videos of a trip he made with the Gideons to Thailand. Very interesting and a beautiful country. They handed out Bibles in the Thai language to students, hospital patients and even to the Buddhist monks who are everywhere on the streets. He told many stories of God's providence and protection while they were in Thailand. And in case you are curious - the Gideons pay all their own travel expenses. Any money donated to The Gideons goes 100% to buying Bibles and New Testatments.

As he closed the program he passed out greeting cards that individuals can use to purchase Bibles for The Gideons to distribute (they are responsible for the Bibles in hotel rooms in the US). He wanted to show us how easy it was to honor someone by donating a Bible in their name. Glancing at me, he pulled out a little well-worn notebook and started flipping through the pages. He said he makes notes of things to do and some time ago he had made a note and had never followed up on it but was going to take care of that right now. He stood next to where I was seated and leaned down so I could see the pages as he was flipping - he had many items crossed off and finally came to a page that wasn't - there is said "Thank You to Mary C and Pastor - Marriage Retreat"

So he took a "Thinking of You" card and filled in the form on the inside saying 5 bibles were being donated in honor or Mary C. He added a line saying, "Thank you for your service". Then on the other side of the card he wrote something like "Thank you for all the work on the marriage retreat." Placing the card in the envelope, he handed it to me. Then he took the smaller envelope that was in the card and filled out that he was paying for 5 Bibles ($25) and that a card had already been sent to the honoree. It was that easy - and it made me feel very honored and appreciated. To think that someone who works hard for his money was willing to give up $25 because he appreciated what I had done. It did not matter that I did not receive the money - I felt blessed to be the 'reason' he was making the donation. I felt like I have received a special unexpected gift. It certainly make me want to do the same when I want to show someone I appreciate them. So I took a box of 10 cards to have on hand for just such an occassion :-)

I can see how God uses everyday things like a man's lack of follow up on his note made the end of January, and a room full of pre-teens to glorify Him. Isn't He wonderful!?!?!?!?

Cross stitching finishes

I completed 2 cross stitch projects this week. The first is a bridal shower gift for a young lady at church. She is registered for multiple colors of Fiesta ware so I thought this colorful bread cloth would look nice on her table. I will add a couple gourmet muffin mixes in the gift box. For her wedding gift, I purchased the muffin top pan from her registry.



The second piece is a square for Love Quilts. This one is for a little girl who loves the EMS Baby Animals.
I am also going to do the pig baby in memory of my Aunt Ruth who collected pig figurines and other knick knacks. Her dad (my grandfather) was a farmer and had pigs and cows. Guess they reminded her of her youth.

God's timing

I love it when things happen that reveal to me God's perfect timing. I moderate a Yahoo group that stitches squares for charities that make quilts for sick children and we often do a stitchalong for a particular theme to help the charity gather a 'stash' of squares for emergencies when a child cannot wait the 9 months or so that it takes to do a complete theme just for that child.
Recently the group decided to do a stitchalong of the EMS Baby Animals and planned to send the squares to some of the charities. The ladies really fell in love with these cute little critters and we had 20 signups in no time.
This week Love Quilts opened a new child (Breonna) who wants a quilt of EMS Babies. So we have a home for all those squares before we even send them. Some will be duplicates of what others stitch but they may have to use duplicates to get the 35 necessary to make the quilt. Any that they cannot use for Breonna's quilt will be stored in the Any Child stash for emergency cases. Only God could have known that the need would be there!
Here is a picture of the chart I am stitching- I am almost halfway done.


And these are my favorites of the ones that our group has already completed - I couldn't choose just one :-) These were stitched by Raynett (TX) and Wilma (WA).

Flowers in a shoe

This is the third quilt square I have stitched for the Stitchers' Challenge at Quilts for Seniors. I bought this chart as a kit and have just been waiting for a reason to stitch it. This is for the gardening theme of the challenge. I think I may have to do a second one for our purple bathroom.

Cross stitch squares

These are 2 more quilt squares that I stitched. I did these on Saturday. They stitch up quickly and once I start one I want to see it finished. They remind me of pencil sketches, so it makes me feel like an artist. (Jill, I know you are doing the skater also but duplicates are okay since these will be donated to Love Quilts for emergency needs.

These are for a stitch-along at Cross Stitching for Charity (CSFC). This is an online Yahoo group that I moderate. We encourage each other as we stitch for various charities that make quilts or pillows for people who are sick. These will probably go to Love Quilts.

The CSFC group has several stitch-alongs going at a time. For this one the participants are all stitching these sports figures that are done with a single color of floss. We are using many different colors so they will be a rainbow of designs when we are done. Someone donated a big stash of floss to the group because she no longer did cross stitching so I sent everyone who signed up to stitch a square a skein of floss.

These are quick stitches but they are challenging because you have to keep the back of the square really neat or the colored thread will peak through the little holes in the cloth. So I decided to scan the backs of my squares too. I know some stitchers who scan the back of all their projects to 'show off' how neatly it was done. With quality stitching, the back should look like a mirror image of the front. How do you think I did on these?

First square of 2009

This is my first charity square of 2009. It is for Cristina through Quilts for Older Children. Her theme is 'Religious'. I chose the verse from a leaflet I have and combined parts of 2 borders to make it larger. (The design is really straight on the fabric, I just had it on the scanner a little off kilter)

I should memorize that verse to remind myself to rejoice. It is so easy to moan and complain or worry about the future that it takes real effort for me to think back on what God has done and rejoice.

I'm back in the cross-stitching groove. I completed this square in one day (I stayed up until almost midnight to finish it since I was so close). Now on to work on my EMS Baby Chipmunk and the other

Finished blanket and Menu Monday (late again)

I finished the baby blanket last night. I did it in 5 days which is longer than some. One I finished in 2 days as I had a business trip to Chicago and I knitted the whole 10 hours I was riding in the back of the van :-) The baby shower is next Tuesday so I made my deadline easily.

I used Homespun yarn by Lion's Brand. It is varigated so it makes a natural striping to the blanket. It is knit on the diagonal, beginning with 5 stitches and increasing every row until you reach the middle, then decreasing every row. It is a plain knit with the 'yarn over' to create an eyelet type edging. One of these times I think I will run a silky ribbon all the way around through the eyelet openings, tying bows at the corners.
I love how this photo shows the striping. I did not plan it when I placed it on the chair but the stripes are almost lined up perfectly. You can see the eyelet edging where the one side is lapped over the other -looks like a design right down the center in this photo.

Now, I will get busy on some charity cross-stitching. I need to get a religious square done and mailed before 2/1/09. I have started another that is due on 2/1/09 but it is for the Yahoo group I moderate and that deadline is flexible - so I will put it aside and get the other one done first. One of the charity groups has started a Stitchers' Challenge. Six themes are posted for a six month period. Each stitcher does one square per theme with the option to trade off one theme. The themes are sport, dog, cat, houses, in the mountains and flower/gardening. I have enjoyed looking through my pattern books (I have a full 4 drawer file cabinet of them!) and pulled some that I think will be fun to do and please the recipients. These will all go to senior citizens. I will post them as I get them done - or maybe post them when my group of 6 are done. It is just one way to 'enable' our addiction (like we need that ???)

Today is an icy day - no school and I am working from home. DH tried to go into work this morning and had trouble getting up the hill in our subdivision so called and told them he would be in later. He left about 2 hours late - after the salt truck made it around the cul-de-sac. DD17 is still asleep but I have some jobs for her later. DD19 is north of us at her cousin's house and will be traveling on to Chicago with a friend and one of her cousins today. The weather up there is better - just a light dusting of snow. She will spend a couple days with my sister and then head back later in the week when it will be springlike again.

All in all it is a good day to settle in and cross-stitch. I have the "So you forgot to defrost" chicken in the crockpot and will put some Honey Grain Rolls in the bread machine later. That will make a nice hot supper for tonight. I have to get serious again with my Weight Watchers as my sister has decided to join too so there is a little competition now :-)

Here are the menus for this week:

Monday -
Ham and Beans
Corn Muffins

Tuesday-
So You Forgot to Defrost Chicken
Honey Grain Rolls
Twice Baked Potatoes (I made extra baked potatoes on Sunday so I could have these today)
Mandarin Oranges

Wednesday-
Italian Beef Sandwiches
Salad

Thursday -
Spicy BBQ meatballs
Broccoli with Orange Sesame Sauce
Honey Grain Rolls

Friday -
Herbed Cheese Stuffed Shells
Honey Grain Rolls
Asparagus

Saturday -
Crusty Grouper with Cucumber Salsa
Parmesan Pea Risotto
Cooked apples

Sunday -
French Onion Soup

Charity Cross-stitch

For several years I have been cross-stitching for charity through several organizations. Most use counted cross-stitch squares to make quilts for sick or terminally ill children. Others make quilts for senior citizens to let them know we haven't forgotten them. I am moderator for a Yahoo group (CSFC) that enables stitchers to contribute to a number of charities and we have also made a few quilts within our group to give to relatives or friends of our members.

I have posted my final squares for 2008 in my webshots album, 2008 Cross Stitching.


This cherry pie will be part of a quilt for Jake at Love Quilts. He is a young boy who wanted 'fun foods' for his theme. This is a Mary Engelbreit kit that I found on E-Bay and added the border to make it large enough for the quilt square.

This is the same chart done for Quilts for Seniors who makes lap quilts for senior citizens. This is for their teatime theme or it could be used for the kitchen theme. They use smaller squares so I did not have to add a border but I did the background grid to personalize it.

This Care Bear will go to Cuddle Cushions who makes pillows for sick children. One of the groups I belong to (Quilts for Older Children) has ongoing signups for Cuddle Cushions. The moderator posts scans of fabric squares that she has to donate to Cuddle Cushions and the stitchers sign up to do squares to match up to the fabric. This will go with a fabric that has a blue background and smiling stars scattered around. It is perfect for this chart.
This is another Cuddle Cushions donation. The fabric for this one is lime green with pink and purple accents. It has Care Bears scattered on the fabric as well.

If you would like to see more of my charity stitching, you can use the link on the years below.
This year I did 68 items for charity (5 of the photos in my album are gifts I made so they don't count as a charity). In 2007, I did 123 charity items which also included bookmarks and ornaments. In 2006, I did 114 and in 2005, I did 66 (I did not start stitching for charity until April of 2005 or I would have hit 100 then too). I slowed down in 2008 because of other craft demands, like a scrapbook for DH19's high school graduation - and knitting about 8 baby blankets. Well -back to the most recent baby blanket. I am anxious to get it done so I can get busy on some cross stitch squares that are due by 2/1/09.

Ornaments for Charity

I am a moderator for the Yahoo group CSFC (Cross-stitching for Charity). We do counted fross stitch items for many charities. One of our recent projects was stitching ornaments for The Busy Needle cross stitch shop's Diabetes Tree. They set up a tree in their shop to display donated ornaments and all money from the sale of the ornaments goes to local groups to help purchase diabetic supplies.
We sent over 45 ornaments. Some of the CSFC members finished the ornaments themselves while others sent me the cross-stitch square and I finished the ornament. I put music buttons in some of them.

These are the ones I stitched. I used a couple Frosty the Snowmen buttons, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, Joy to the World and Jingle Bells music buttons.

You can see more ornaments and all ofour projects at CSFC Webshots