Hot off the longarm...

I picked up this Jelly Roll Race II from the professional longarm quilter today.  The fabric used was a precut jelly roll called Bobbins and Bits by designer Pat Sloan for Moda fabrics.  It's the first quilt top I made with my new quilt group...that was back in November of last year...and it has been awaiting quilting since.  Let's see if I can get some binding on it in a reasonable amount of time.

When I picked it up today, I also dropped off another pieced top.  I'm feeling a little guilty, because the one I dropped off is a hand-pieced top made by a loved one, and I feel like I should have hand quilted it as well.  I just don't foresee that happening any time soon, so...

Great experience with the quilter, and she does very nice work.  I look forward to giving her more business soon.

Q and A...

I've never been good at keeping a journal.  The closest I've come has probably been keeping fairly current on this blog for the past eight years.  But that doesn't stop me from being a complete sucker for the crisp, empty pages of bound journals.

I came across this one a few days ago on Amazon.  Since there were reasonably priced used copies available, I gave in to the urge to order.  It arrived today, and looks brand new without entries or damage of any kind.

It takes away the excuse of "I don't have anything to write about today," by giving writing prompts.  A question a day with space for short answers for five years.  As quick and easy to answer as, "What's your favorite cereal?" (December 23) to a more thought and time requirement of, "How are you?  Write it in a rhyming couplet (two lines of verse that rhyme and have the same rhythm," (October 24).

Today's question asks, "If you had to spend five years in prison, what would you finally have the chance to do?"

I puzzled over what kind of things one would be allowed to do in prison.  I'm pretty sure traveling is out, as is knitting (pointy needles), quilting (scissors), and maybe even reading  (I mean who knows what kind of library might be available).

So I guess my answer today will be, "Writing.  Maybe even in a journal."  :)

A Diego kind of day...

Tuesday started early and ended late.  I had to go into the city for an early appointment, run errands, be back in time to meet with a longarm quilter about some completed quilt tops.  And when all that was done I called to see if Diego wanted to come spend some time with us.  Hearing his excitement-filled 'yes' gave me such a lift.

internet photo

Dinner, television, general hanging out time, until midnight when we settled into lawn chairs in the dark to see what we could see of the Perseid meteor shower.  We were a little early, and it was a little cloudy.  Diego went inside for awhile till the clouds cleared off, and he ended up missing the best ones, but Jared and I enjoyed spending a couple of hours star gazing.

Up early enough today for lunch out and a trip to Half-Price Books.  Diego is a true reader.  I set a two-book limit, and he had no trouble picking them out.  A long stoplight a few blocks from the store found him so engrossed already that he didn't even notice me snapping a quick pic...if I hadn't had to drive I would probably have looked the same.  :)  He's my kinda kid.

Growing boys...

As summer wanes, we are trying to squeeze in more time with the kids before school starts.  It's harder with the boys since they split time between their home with their mom and their home with their dad.  It only gets more difficult as they get older and have busier schedules.

And now Bobby is starting his first job as well!  Today in fact.  So on Sunday I asked him if he wanted to come spend the night at our house before work started, and he said yes.  I'm so thankful that a junior in high school still wants to spend time with us.

We played Apples to Apples (the Disney version that his little sister had left here last time she came, which gave us a lot of silly laughs), and then a game of Scrabble.

In the morning I made him his favorite iced coffee, which is a special tradition for him at my house.

Monday we went out to lunch together, and enjoyed the scenery en route.  I coerced him into taking a photo of the old woodie station wagon driving beside us on the road.  Love the color.

We talked about inherited family traits, television, near-death experiences, his dad's parents (because I think the world of them...he and his brother really lucked out in the grandparent department, if I do say so myself), the coming school year, and a myriad of other things.

It was a day to treasure.

Pantry reorganization...

LB over at What's Cookin' with Faithy reminded me that I had yet to share the pantry before and after photos as I had threatened promised.

I emptied a shelf before I took a photo.  This was at 2:00 a.m., remember?  And if you enlarge the photo, you can see dead moth bodies and detritus covering that shelf.  Ewww.  As I found infested items, I put them in plastic bags, sealed the bags, and put them in another bag to go to the outside bin immediately.  Luckily I had a lot of things already in jars, and also more empty jars to transfer things into.

A clean slate.  I vacuumed all surfaces (not at 2:00 a.m.), then wiped them all down.  Then the vacuum was taken outside and emptied.  

Top shelf now houses empty jars and a basket of various hot chocolate mixes which will get moved down to reachable level as the weather cools.  

Second shelf down holds bags for the FoodSaver, a plastic bin full of gallon-size Ziplock bags, and paper towels to last at least the rest of the year.  (Everything on this shelf was previously housed elsewhere.)

Middle shelf, which is generally eye level, holds (left to right) fruit juices, peanut butter, a turntable filled with canned meats (tuna, salmon, and chicken), pickled items, curry sauces, and then another turntable with condiments.

Next down from that is (left to right) mayonnaise (3 jars...apparently I make a habit of buying another jar just in case we are running low), glass jars filled with crackers, glass jars with chocolate chips and peanut butter chips, a glass jar full of partial bags of brown sugar, and another turntable with pie fillings, evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, syrups, and coconut oil.  (The baking items may get consolidated in the other pantry where I keep baking tools and spices, but I needed to concentrate on one space at a time right now.)

Bottom shelf holds (back left to right) empty jars in back that I plan on filling soon, jars of beans and lentils, cooking spirits; and in front (left to right) are jars of peppermint tea bags and another of family-size tea bags for iced tea, a plastic basket of cloth napkins that see daily use, and a plastic basket of seasoning packets.

The floor holds (left to right) folding step stool, bin for recyclables, and a bin for soiled napkins and kitchen towels.

What's gone are cardboard packaging, rarely used cloth items, and wooden baskets...all of which those pesky moths seemed to like to burrow into and build cocoons.  Boxed items have been repackaged into glass jars, and wooden baskets replaced with plastic.  Nothing new had to be purchased.  The plastic baskets and turntables had originally been used in other areas, and they were currently in the thinking-about-donating staging area.  Glad I still had them available to use here.

Sunday dessert for the family...

My mother used to make pound cakes often:  plain, chocolate, coconut.  I decided to do a pound cake for family Sunday dinner this week.  I have several boxes of cream cheese in the fridge that need to be used, so I decided to look for a pound cake recipe that I could use some of it in.  I found Southern Living's Cream Cheese Pound Cake.

I started by creaming the butter, cream cheese, and sugar in my beautiful jadeite mixing bowl...a precious gift from a precious friend.  I mostly took this photo, because I knew it would make her happy to see me using it.  

When I was looking for the vanilla extract, I noticed the coconut extract.  And I knew I had part of a bag of coconut left in the fridge that needed to be used, so my cake turned into a cream cheese and coconut pound cake by changing the 1 Tablespoon of vanilla extract into 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract +1 teaspoon coconut extract, and then at the very end I folded in about a half cup of flake coconut.

Is there anything prettier than a bundt cake fresh out of the oven.  To me it says mama...especially since this one was made in her bundt pan.

It didn't really need a glaze, but this Coconut Glaze from Martha Stewart looked so easy, that I thought, why not.  It only called for powdered sugar and coconut milk, but I added a tiny bit of coconut extract as well.

And here she is...pretty enough to eat and pretty darn yummy.

Seven random thoughts on the 7th...

1.  Two o'clock in the morning found me emptying out the old pantry.  It's hasn't had a good go through since before we started the kitchen remodel.  And sometime in that period we have had a pantry-moth infestation.  I keep finding something that I think is the source, bag it and dispose of it, and then a couple of weeks later find something else full of them.  Now everything has been removed and gone through.  Twelve hours later all surfaces (ceiling, floor, walls, shelf tops and bottoms) have been vacuumed and wiped down...there were a few hours of sleep time included, but not many.  Before and after photos tomorrow.

2.  Really.  Why do I find motivation to do this kind of thing in the middle of the night instead of the middle of the day?  My poor husband never knows what he will find when he gets up in the morning.  Today he found a note of apology for my leaving him only 8 square inches of clear counter space to make his breakfast.

3.  My mother-in-law will be coming to visit in September.  I finally got around to ordering a bed for the front guest room.  We have another guest room with a bed in it, but that bed is very high, and I can't, in good conscience, expect an 85 year old to climb into it any longer.

4.  SO much I want/need to get done around here before m-i-l arrives.  Not the least of which is putting some thought into menu planning for her special needs.

5.  Oh!  I've just realized that I have plenty of bacon and eggs in the fridge!  Breakfast for dinner tonight!  Yippee! I have successfully put off the grocery store one more day.  Why can't it be open at 2:00 a.m.?  I'm sure I could work up the motivation to shop about then.

6.  I Googled a friend's name the other day and found her obituary from two years ago.  I'm not sure how I missed hearing about it, but I feel really crummy.  

7.  Just took a minute to email someone I've been meaning to contact about some quilting.  Now I can scratch that off my to-do list and conscience.