Choosing a Fat Quarter Bundle

I was browsing around the blog world this morning and stumbled across Quokka Quilts and her blog post about Fat Quarter Shop's contest to create a Blogger's Choice Fat Quarter Bundle.  Not only is it a chance to look through (and drool over) their awesome fabric, one person will will get their own
Blogger's Choice FQ Bundle and win a 1/2 yard of each fabric!  Squeal!!! 

It didn't take me long to find something that I'm in LOVE with! 

Owls, pinks & oranges. Doesn't get much better than that for me!  Add in some fun polka-dots & stripes and here's what I came up with!  It was a lot of fun!

Here are the fabrics I chose:

1. Crazy For Dots & Stripes II Pink and Orange Dots on White Yardage
2. Heart Garden Pink Tonal Swirling Swirls Yardage
3. Annie's Farm Stand Green Ring Tone Yardage
4. Bella Solids Orange Yardage
5. Crazy For Dots & Stripes II Pink and Orange Stripes on White Yardage
6. Stella Dot Orange and Pink on White Stella Dot Yardage
7. Urban Zoologie Pink Staggered Owls Yardage
8. Bright Owl Yellow Star Doodles Yardage
9. Bella Solids Country Red Yardage
10. Remix Grass Fun Dots Yardage
11. Remix Garden Straight Up Stripe Yardage
12. Annie's Farm Stand Pink Ring Tone Yardage
13. Annie's Farm Stand Orange Annie's Big Dot Yardage
14. Urban Zoologie Pink Tossed Whales Yardage
15. Bella Solids Magenta Yardage

Slow Cooker Beef Noodle Soup

Ok, first things first. I am not really the cooking type, in fact my husband is the one who usually cooks. I would much rather bake. I think the issue is not that I'm an awful cook, I just get too overwhelmed when trying to make more then one thing at one time. That's why I like to bake - follow the recipe, add the items one by one, put in oven, take out when the timer beeps and ta-da! A delicious treat!

With that said, the last time we were at my in-laws I saw they had this Slow Cooker Revolution cookbook. I browsed through it & each recipe I looked at sounded really good & looked like something I could do. And being the lucky girl I am, a few days later my very own copy showed up at our house-thanks David! I've made a couple things out of it so far & this time thought I'd give the Old Fashioned Beef Noodle Soup a try.

 There were a few things that I thought were interesting about the recipe. The first thing is, it has you microwave the onion along with the spices and some tomato paste before adding it with the veggies and meat to the slow-cooker. 

The other thing I was surprised by, is the recipe did not have you add the noodles directly to the slow cooker. After 8 hours of cooking, I boiled the noodles on the stove & then mixed them in with the rest of the soup right before serving. 

According to the husband, it was the best soup I've ever made. He went back for seconds, and the next day ate all that was leftover before I even got home from work! Good thing I froze 1/2 of it right away, and I'm guessing it won't stay in the freezer too long! 

Garage Window Curtain

Recently there have been some car break-ins of cars parked on the street our neighborhood. One of the neighbors even said he had a set of golf-clubs that were stolen out of his garage when he was home & had the garage door open. Since we have a window in our garage, my husband thought it would be a good idea to put up a curtain so no one can look inside & see if we were home or not, or to spy on his prized possession - his motorcycle. (Please ignore the mess below the window, the garage is not my territory.)

So being the devoted wife (and of course, one who loves to sew!), I set out to make him a curtain. I wanted to use a fabric that would look the same on both sides & something that was masculine enough for a garage. I also was feeling lazy & didn't want to leave the house.  Digging around in my sewing room, I found this fabric leftover from when I had made a rag quilt.  And it was approved by the husband & Mr. C seemed to like it too!   

I would've liked them to be a little wider, but I didn't have any more fabric.  And since I'm not the handiest when it comes to powertools or drilling into wood, I didn't want to hang up a traditional curtain rod. So I bought a tension rod & used that instead. 

Coaster Fun

Last weekend was our first 'real' snowfall of the winter. Even though I am not a lover of snow, I had to admit it was very pretty to have an all-day snowfall like that on Saturday. And was the perfect excuse for me to stay inside & sew :)

I bought this fabric a couple years ago at Hobby Lobby and finally used it a couple weeks ago in a different project. And since I had some pieces left over I made some coasters.  Which we have been in need of around our house since we usually end up putting our coffee cups on random pieces of mail because we didn't have anything better to use.  I think they turned out pretty cute!

Hello Blog World

I am completely new to this whole blogging world, but thought I'd give it a try. I hope to share some of the crafty things I'm doing, as well as learn some new and creative things from others.  I hope to have an actual first blog post up sometime soon with the project I'm currently working on.....a hint is - it's my modern take on an old-school classic that you've probably seen in your grandmothers kitchen.