Last One...

Our cake decorating class ended last night and if I don't see buttercream icing again for awhile I'll be very happy. Grace decorated most of this cake, I made two of the roses and she did the rest. I was quite impressed, she makes better roses than I do!

Fabric in, fabric out this week. Out went the binding for my sampler quilt, which is finally done and affectionately being referred to (by my husband) as my "Menopause Quilt". I'm looking forward to getting it on the bed and putting away the heavy comforter that makes me a little warm at night. Yeah, that's it...it's the comforter that does it!



In came 3 yards of orange, lime green and yellow fabric to coordinate with the four patches that I showed in my last post. This quilt will be for Project Linus and all of the new fabric will be used for that quilt! I find it hard to believe that at one time in my life, these were my absolute favorite colors...I had the greatest bedroom with bright yellow walls, a royal blue carpet and lime, yellow and orange accents, which included some lime and yellow vinyl pillows that my mom lovingly made for me (although I'm sure she was ready to smack me for making her sew that nasty stuff! Thanks, Mom!) The 70's at their best! I loved that room...and I have to admit, I still love these colors!

Thursday...

Another week, another cake...good thing there's only one more week of this class! We decided to only decorate one cake this week instead of two, so I let Grace do most of the work. She did the top border, the side flowers and the clown on the cake, and I did the bottom border. I think she did a great job!
The first applique block for my rose quilt is finished and the second one is prepped and ready to start stitching.

I've even had a few minutes to sew! Mary Ann shared some of her stash with me this week and I took two of the FQ's she sent and made up 24 four patches last night. I'll be looking for something to set these with and will put them into a baby quilt for Project Linus. Thanks Mary Ann!

It looks like we're in for a storm tonight and tomorrow, so my girls are hoping for a snow day tomorrow. I'm hoping too....

Avast Ye Mateys!

Cake decorating class was Monday night and I was a total failure. After frosting our layers for class, I seemed to miss the "color your icing before class" instruction and came to class with white icing. Incredibly stiff white icing. Everyone had beautiful rainbows and I quickly made up some pink icing...at least it was seasonally appropriate! As a result...I had a lovely pink rainbow and decorated my cake for Valentine's Day.


My daughter, however, used her charms to lure another class member into sharing her purple icing, so her rainbow had a little more color. And writing? She, being a bit OCD and obsessed with all things Johnny Depp and Pirates of the Carribean at the moment decided to draw on her cake.
The teacher laughed. But she looked afraid. I hope she comes back on Monday to teach us how to make clowns. Or maybe not...clowns scare me...

Happy Birthday!

Somehow, without my getting any older, my daughter has managed to turn 18! Today is her birthday and she is poised to start a new adventure once she graduates from high school in June. A friend asked me the other day if you really are ready to send your kids out into the world on their own once they graduate high school and are ready for college. For me, I've spent years watching them grow, mature and become independent and I was ready for my son to head off to college...and I'm ready for Ellen to go to. I'm not saying it's not hard, because it is, knowing that you won't see them every day, won't know what they're doing and who they're with...but if they have the right values, then it's a wonderful thing to see them come into their own. Ellen is beautiful, fiesty, strong and very independent and I know that she will succed at whatever she does. She's just that kind of kid. Last night we took her to dinner in Philly to celebrate her birthday and had a wonderful time.

I've done no sewing this week, so there won't be a stash busting report. I did start my cake decorating class with my younger daughter on Monday, it was mostly lecture and supply lists this week, so we're looking forward to hitting the buttercream next week! I did finish this book....
As someone whose entire knowledge of the aqueducts, life in Pompeii and the eruption of Vesuvius came from a History Channel show a few months ago, I found it a very entertaining read! Then yesterday, I took a ride to the bookstore and bought this book....
I've been hearing about it for a year now and curiosity got the best of me. I've just started reading it and the basic premise of the Law of Attraction sounds a lot like the power of positive thinking or praying for what you want. I'm a very positive, looking for the bright side kind of person, so it doesn't seem greatly different than how I approach every day. Of course, I've only read the first two chapters, so I have a long way to go.

Sunday Stashbusting Report...

Not much sewing has been going on here in the Lakes. It was a quiet, normal week, filled with the usual sort of work, school, running errands and regular activities...not much to blog about but very nice indeed. I did start a new quilt for Project Linus. This is a Buzz Saw quilt and was posted by Kairle at Happy Valley Quilter. I've had it on my list of projects to do for awhile and finally pulled some blues from the stash to make it. Everything for this will be from the stash.

I've been doing a lot of cooking, mostly from Weight Watchers cookbooks. Last Sunday I made this chicken fettuccine dish that was sooo good with a salad and a glass of wine. Last night was pasta with shrimp and now I've got a chicken roasting in the oven with lemon, garlic and rosemary...I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed cooking! I also made a WW meatloaf in the crockpot on Friday which we sliced for sandwiches yesterday...it was incredible. Now their cheesecake that I made was not so good...that one went into the trash...

I'm looking forward to tomorrow...my youngest gets her braces off and after 8 years of paying for braces for our two girls, we'll be finished! The youngest and I also signed up to take a Wilton cake decorating course at Michael's in February...I decorated cakes for years, but never had any formal instruction, so we're both looking forward to learning how to do it right. But the best part will be eating our mistakes!