Happy Monday #15

Have a Happy Monday!
~Melissa

My First "Real" Quilt

Wow it has been quite a while since I've been on my blog.  I have had a lot of things going on in my personal life, but today for the first time in a long time I felt like myself!  And since I was feeling good, I thought I'd show off this awesome little quilt that I made. (I know not very humble, but I'm really excited about it!)

One of my good friends at work & his wife recently had a sweet little baby girl to add to their family of boys.  I decided to use the tutorial over at Diary of a Quilter to make her a quilt.  This was my first "real" quilt, I've only made rag quilts before.  I wanted it to be girly (but not too much so, as she will be in a home of brothers).  But I wanted to make something with pinks and reds and blues, because I've been seeing that color scheme lately & wanted to get in on that.

When I found A Walk in the Woods from Moda, I knew that was perfect!

The tutorial was really easy to follow.  Here are some pics of my progress along the way.

Piecing together the squares

Adding the borders

Ready to be Quilted

I apologize for the blurry picture of the end quilt, but I was a little late (baby was week overdue) and I wanted to get it quilted before she arrived.  I searched online for long-arm quilters in my town & emailed two of them to see if they could sneak me in.  And luckily for me, one of the ladies actually lives right in my neighborhood!  She is two streets over & you can actually see her house from our back yard!  Plus she is super nice and was able to help me out & quilted it with little swirls and hearts.  It turned out more beautiful than I could have ever expected.  And my friend and his wife LOVED it.  And baby does too.  They even took it with them to have her newborn pictures taken.

Happy Monday #14

Have a Happy Monday!
~Melissa

Happy Monday #13

Have a Happy Monday!
~Melissa

Happy Monday #12

Sorry for missing last week. I'm having a hard time with some big changes in my life.
Have a Happy Monday!
~ Melissa

...

Happy Monday #11

Happy Monday #10

Well I'm done with my exam.  It went ok I guess, so I'm cautiously optimistic at this point.  While I wait for my score, I am super excited to play with these pretties!  I love this line!  It has little red riding hood, foxes, mushrooms and sweet little birdies.  I got it from pinked fabrics on Etsy.  She is awesome!  She also has a blog at http://lotsofpinkhere.blogspot.com so go check her out there.  I'll be attempting to make this into a quilt for my friend Todd & his wife Amy who will be adding a baby girl to their family of little boys. Yay!  

Have a Happy Monday!
~Melissa

Happy Monday #9

I really liked this quote for today, because it was totally fitting for me to find this weekend.  Although I have to admit that I needed to look up what axiomatic meant.  And in case you weren't sure either...it means "self-evident or unquestionable".  I agree. 

Have a Happy Monday!
~Melissa

Reese's S'mores

I cannot take credit for coming up with this idea, but when you come across something this amazing you just have to share it!  At the grocery store today they had all of the makings for s'mores grouped together in a display, but today there was an extra ingredient along - Reese's Peanutbutter Cups!!

It is well known in our family, that they are my absolute favorite candy!  In fact, one year for Christmas my in-laws gave me a box of Reese's Peanutbutter Cups from Sam's Club. You know the GIANT box. So needless to say, I had to try it!  I was also excited to find these flat marshmallow's, what an awesome idea!  


I heated mine in the microwave for a few seconds, and they were delicious!  A great way to end the weekend.  

Slow Cooker Hawaiian Pork Chops

You know much I love using my slow cooker.  I think a lot of people think of their slow cooker during the winter, to make hearty meals like stews and chili.  But the slowcooker can be even better during the summer!  No turning on the oven or standing over a hot stove.  I just drop everything in before I going to work in the morning and when we get home, dinner is ready!  And you can make lighter meals too - such as tasty Hawaiian Pork Chops.

Slow Cooker Hawaiian Pork Chops

1 package of pork chops
20oz can of pineapple chunks
1 T soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

Pour the can of pineapple into the bottom of your slow cooker.  Stir in the sugar, soy sauce, and red pepper flakes.  Nestle the pork-chops on top of the pineapple and season with salt and pepper. Cook on low heat for 6-8 hours.

I served mine with brown rice and mixed salad greens.  Talk about easy!  And it looks & tastes like I spent the afternoon cooking.  

Happy Monday #8

Have a Happy Monday!
~ Melissa

Monkey Rag Quilt

Even if you're studying, when a good friend has her first baby you kind of HAVE to make something special for her!  Good thing I've had this monkey rag quilt already started for a while, all I had to do was sew together all of the rows and snip the fringe.  She didn't know what they were going to have, but she ended up having an adorable little boy who I hope will will love this!  Although its been in the upper 90s around here lately, so he might have to wait until it cools off a bit before using it.

  Here's a close up of the fabric.  Love these fun little monkeys!

Happy Monday #7

I am going to be MIA from my blog for the next 19 days (I am going to keep up with the Happy Monday Quotes). The reason is that since January 2011 I have been studying for a professional certification.  I passed my first exam this spring, and my next exam is scheduled for July 21st.  I am in no way ready, so for the next few weeks I'm going to have to fully immerse myself into studying.  Which means no cooking, or sewing, or cleaning, or outdoor fun, if you're looking for me you'll find me inside studying.  I hope it pays off, I may have procrastinated a little too much, but I think I can do it.  Wish me luck! :)

Have a Happy Monday!
~Melissa

Happy Monday #6

Although a lot of our plants have suffered hail damage from all of the wet weather we have had in the past few weeks, the bright pink colors of my Phlox are a still a beautiful sign of summer.  Especially as we think of the terrible wildfires that our friends in northern Colorado are dealing with right now.  As well as the recent flooding up in Duluth, both help remind me of how lucky we are.

Have a Happy Monday!
~Melissa

Blueberry Granola Pancakes

On our vacation in Chicago we found the best breakfast place called the West Egg.  It was perfect for us to go have a big breakfast each morning and then spend the rest of the day walking around & seeing the city.

The first day I had what they called Crunchberry Pancakes (gotta love the name!), which were Blueberry Pancakes with granola in them.  They were AMAZING!  So of course that is what I had the next two days as well!

When we got home & I saw blueberries for sale at the grocery store, I knew I had to try to re-create the recipe at home!  Here is what I came up with:

Blueberry Granola Pancakes
1 cup whole wheat flour (you can use white flour too, but I only had whole wheat flour at home)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbs sugar
1 cup milk
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup blueberries
1/4 cup granola

Mix together flour, baking powder, and sugar.  In a seperate bowl beat egg and add vanilla, and milk. Mix the egg/milk mixture with flour until well incorporated.  Add blueberries and granola.  Heat a medium skillet with a bit of butter or cooking spray.  Pour in batter and flip when the top gets bubbly.  Serve with toppings of your choice.  We added a few fresh blueberries and of course Real Wisconsin Maple Syrup!

All in all, I think they turned out pretty good!  If you eat the pancakes all by themselves they seem to need a little extra sugar in the batter, but after I added syrup the amount of sweetness was just right!

30 Day Photo Challenge - Days 8 - 14

I'm a little behind on posting my 30 Day Photo Challenge.

You can find my prior photos here
Days 1 - 7

I'm a sucker for a salty snack, especially chips. Any and all kinds, I love them all.  I actually can't even buy them anymore because I just eat them until they're gone. They call my name.  

I couldn't just pick one "someone" I love. So I picked them both. My hubby  and Mr. C. 

This one kind of needs some explaining.  My mom is the Laundry Queen. Growing up, if you were looking for her, odds were Mom was in the laundry room.  There was always a stack of neatly folded laundry on her dryer.  

Every year since we've lived in our house, we have a robin who lays her eggs in a nest underneath our deck.  We love watching them grow and eventually jump out to spread their wings and fly on their own.  

Pink sunset looking across our street. 

How could I NOT fall in love with those eyes! Oh Mr. C, you have mama wrapped around your finger! 

Happy Monday #5

Have a Happy Monday!
~Melissa

Chicago, Chicago - That Toddlin' Town

We're back from Chicago!  It was an amazing time!  I need to catch up on my 30 day photo project.  But first I want to share a pic from the top of the Sears...ugghh I mean...Willis Tower.  Whatever you call it, the views were amazing! I could have stayed up there all day!

Now back to realty, I guess. And laundry.

Landscaping...finally!

We have lived in our house almost 3 years now, and it has been a struggle to put a yard in.  Now that we have a decent start on our grass, we thought it was time to finally do some landscaping!  We're really happy with the finished product & think it looks so much better already.  Its going to be exciting to see it fill in over the next few years!

This is the view from the street of the front of our house.

View from garage - we took out my pear tree that died last year :( But we got to add a Variegated Maple which I LOVE and a raised bed.  I've always wanted to grow tulips, so I'm going to plant bulbs in there in the fall! 

This is the back corner of the house.

This area of the yard is the lowest so after heavy rain or in the spring when the snow melts, this back corner gets flooded.  So we put plants and trees that tolerate being very wet back here.  I call it my "Swamp", but my husband says I should call it a "Rain Garden" because that sounds better. It also defines our property line  somewhat and gives us a bit a of privacy from our neighbors.  

Have a great week everyone! Hope to have vacation pics for you when we get back from Chicago! 

Happy Monday #4

We're going to be on vacation in Chicago this week. So I thought this was a fitting quote for today.

Have a Happy Monday!
~Melissa

30 Day Photo Challenge - Days 1 - 7

Here is my first update of the 30 Day Photo Challenge I'm doing.  You can read more about it here.  I re-posted my Day 1 photo so I have the full Days 1-7 in the same place.  The pic of the marigolds, I was laying on my stomach in my In-Laws' front yard.  Good thing my Mother-in-Law (MM) is as bad as me when it comes to trying to get a great picture, so she understood!  

Happy Monday #3

Have a Happy Monday!
Melissa

Saturday up North

We went up to visit my husband's parents on Saturday because his grandma was here from out of town.  It was the perfect weather to sit outside and spend time with everyone.  Mr. C enjoyed checking out all of the the plants that my mother-in-law (MM) has.  Well, and I did too, I had fun taking pictures of them all.

Mr. C checking out a bumblebee

This is the underside of those pink flowers  

MM had the biggest marigolds I've ever seen! 

Love these purple flowers. Anyone know what they are? I've been seeing them everywhere & I want some! 

My in-laws have a motel, loved seeing all these boats lined up in the parking lot. They were all from a fishing tournament. 

Even though we were just up there for a day, it was such a great time to relax and recharge.  Sometimes I really miss  it up north.  Just feels like home.