En Provence Mystery Quilt 2017

En Provence Mystery Quilt 2017

In a recent blog post I shared that I was going to be completing the Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt that started on black Friday 2016. When I started I thought I might be over my head because I have never made a quilt this large or with this much piecing. I learned so much making this quilt. It has several mistakes but overall I am pleased with how it turned out. It was supposed to be a "scrappy" quilt, and for the most part I tried to keep to those rules. (I also have never made a scrappy quilt- I have never been able to overcome my OCDishness) I will be making more scrappy quilts in the future. This week I will be piecing the backing. I found a beautiful fabric that is a black background with sprigs of lavender all over. I found it at a local quilt shop but they only had 4 yards (which I bought) but it is not big enough to cover so I will be cutting it into large blocks and piecing it with a solid dark purple and a solid lavender. Then it will be making a trip to the long arm quilter. This quilt is much too large for me to quilt on my machine. So drum roll please...................

Ta-da!!

I cannot wait to put this on my bed. 

  

Mystery Quilt 2016 Clue # 2

Well it has been a busy week at this house- it is amazing that I even found time to quilt. Everyone in our family is involved with out local ballet company, either dancing, doing sound or props for their productions. Last week was our performance of the Nutcracker. We move in to the theater, set up the stage, two dress rehearsals and five shows later we pack it all up again. Add to that three parties, one birthday and a choir concert on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the same week....phew is all I can say. So naturally I relaxed on Monday by starting clue number two of my mystery quilt. 

This step involved more neutral fabric, which I had run out of, so first thing Monday I was off to hobby lobby to buy more fabric! While I was there, found a seam gauge tool. I have been reading about these and thought it might be helpful keeping my seams allowances right. My sewing machine foot is a 1/4 inch foot but sometimes I get off track feeding the fabric through. I was very pleased with this little tool. 

I began cutting the strips of neutral fabric using a set of templates called the Tri-Recs. This block is called a triangle in a square. You cut the larger triangle from the neutral fabric and then two mirror image of the smaller triangle to sew on each side. This step was a little trickier than it looks but after the first mess up I got the hang of it. 

   
I made 100 of these little beauties! Clue number three came out today- I'll give you a hint- it will be in my favorite color!

Bonnie Hunter did a beautiful job choosing colors for this years Mystery Quilt. (Her quilts are all stunning). You can find her instructions on her blog here.


Dan's family is coming in for a family reunion this weekend so I won't be able to start on clue #3 until Sunday afternoon. I might go into withdrawal!

Completed blocks for Clue #2

Mystery Quilt 2016~ Clue # 1

You may or may not know that one of my passions in life is quilting. When I went back to school two years ago, I had little or no time to quilt. However, since graduation, I have been making up for lost time!  A few months ago, I found a group on Facebook for quilters called Quiltville Open Studio. It was through this great bunch of ladies that I learned about Bonnie Hunter, a nationally known quilter/teacher, and her awesome blog. For the past several years, Bonnie has done what she calls a "Mystery Quilt". I love a good mystery so naturally this intrigued me. This years quilt was inspired by Bonnie's trip to Provence France. At the end of October, Bonnie posted on her blog this years inspiration and color pallet, with directions to search our "stash" for fabrics we would use in the quilt. The "mystery" is that we do not know what this quilt will look like. Bonnie will give us a "clue" each week instructing us which fabric to use and what block to make. 

Now, those of you that know me well, know that I am a planner and like to know all the details before I start doing ANYTHING...including quilting. I have also never made a "Scrappy" quilt. (Scrappy quilts are just what it sounds like. Using scraps of fabric from other quilts you have made, or fabric from your stash, in blocks to complete the quilt) 

Amazingly, this sounded really fun to me and in the spirit of trying new things, I decided to jump aboard this Mystery Quilt train. As soon as the color pallet was posted, I dug through my fabric choosing my fabric. (would you believe that the queen of purple had NO purple fabric and actually had to buy some? Yeah- go figure) 

While everyone across America waited for Black Friday sales to begin...we quilters anxiously awaited for our first clue to be posted.

Clue 1: make 221 four-patch blocks from the neutral fabrics we chose.  

I began sewing strips together and then cutting them into 2 inch blocks. The instructions said to make the four-patches as naturally scrappy as I could. There is no "naturally" scrappy in my nature, so I decided to try a tip that one of the ladies on Facebook posted. Put all of the 2 patch blocks in a bag, draw out 2 and sew them together for a four-patch block. 

So....into the bag they went. I did, for the most part, sew the blocks together that I drew out. It took me a few days, but all 221 blocks are finished...and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how scrappy they turned out. On top of that, I learned several new techniques. One of them was how to "spin" my seams to reduce the bulk in the center of the four patch. 

 Above are the 2 patch blocks cut from the strips. To the right is a picture of the "seam spinning"   

Now to wait for Friday to find out what clue number 2 will be! 

Four patch blocks all finished.

The Big Reveal

Well..........it seems like forever ago that we began the renovations to our home, but today,  I'd like to take you on a tour of our project, from start to finished.  

Inspiration

A few days after I graduated in May, I rewarded myself for all my hard work by "binge watching" the home improvement show 'Fixer Upper'. I love Chip and Joanna's farmhouse style. I immediately wanted to transform our home. After mom and I visited a friends beautiful new home, we started talking, and you know what happens when two women start talking about re-decorating their home don't you? The ideas start flowing and the walls come tumbling down! 

I started the changes one Saturday afternoon by buying a gallon of paint and in a few hours, my bathroom had a new look. The picture below shows what the bathroom looked like before. The walls were a light sage green.

This is the after............

I love the cocoa walls with the white trim. You can see in the top photo, the old enamel topped cabinet that I found in the basement and painted a few years ago. It matches the walls perfectly now. 

Two days later we started the kitchen. The very first thing we did was.....

Set up a coffee station, of course! 

Seriously, though, here is a look at the kitchen before we began. When we bought the house 10 years ago we removed the wallpaper and painted the walls a warm cinnamon color. You can see it was basically a "U-Shaped" layout with the fridge opposite the stove and the sink between.

After choosing paint colors etc. Mom and I started painting cabinet doors and walls. Dan and Kate (the daughter of a dear friend who is like a niece to us) started taking cabinets off the wall and moving the fridge, re-routing electric, and moving the water lines. Then it was time.......

Left: Abi takes a shot at it. Top right: Britni takes over Middle: Kate takes a whack. Bottom: Little Belle with a little hammer.

Demo day!

 The wall is finally coming down! Even little Belle got in on the action. The wall we took down was the wall that the fridge was on in the "before" pic. We all worked tirelessly.....making and installing a base footer( to sit upper cabinets that were on this wall under a new counter-top), putting up bead board ( I settled for this, I really wanted shiplap) installing new lighting and tile back-splash (guess who learned how to grout it all by herself...thank you Youtube!)........and after weeks and weeks........Here is the moment we have all been waiting for..................

Now you know, as Dan was working his magic in the kitchen with the construction, I couldn't just sit around doing nothing, so the living room and dining room got a new look as well. Mom & I started by painting the walls a steel grey color and painting the trim a crisp white. We painted two armoires, six chairs, and a piano black. We re-arranged all our art-work etc. and came up with this.............

This is the foyer

These pictures from the living room don't really do it justice but you can get the idea. There was a pass through over couch, but it was only half of this opening. We extended it up to the bulk-head and removed a shelf that stuck out into the room over the couch.

And last but not least, the dining room. I don't think the pictures give the full effect that you get in person. We love the new look and are looking forward to entertaining over the next few months so we can share it with family and friends in person. 

Thanks for touring our home.

Summer Blog Series Begins~Pantry Organizaion

Summer has finally begun! Yes, I know it is the second week in July and most people have probably been celebrating summer for a month or so, but we had a crazy May and an even crazier June ending in our second "vacation trip" over the 4th of July weekend. Phew! Now that all that is over with I can get down to business with my summer blog series. I am not a fan of hot summer weather at all, so while the temperatures creep up over uncomfortable, I will be busy inside. During the past two years while I was working full-time and going to school full-time, things around our home have gotten a little unorganized, to say the least. My mission       (whether I choose to accept it or not) is to get this place organized and simplified by September(ish). With my trusty side-kick, mom, by my side I decided that my first(and most needed) place to make-over was the pantry. After searching Pinterest for several days, I found some great ideas for organizing a pantry. Early Friday morning, mom and I schlepped to the dollar store to purchase a variety of containers to use for storage...And...you can't beat the price! 

As you can see from the before shot this pantry definitely needed an overhaul! We began by emptying the contents and grouping everything into categories like baking, canned goods, pasta etc. (We needed 3 tables, two snack tray tables and the floor to fit it all. How it fit in the pantry before I will never know.) Once everything was out we took off the shelf liner and wiped down each shelf. Next, we fit each "food category" into a storage container and added a label. I found some pretty labels at the dollar store too.

From start to finish, including shopping time, the entire project took five hours. I think you'll agree that it was five hours well spent. (I even used power tools to screw the bins on the side to the wall! This might not be impressive to some, but to those who know my skill level in this area, they will be amazed) 

Total cost: $ 20.00 ~ OCD issues fulfilled: Priceless!

I pity the fool who messes this pantry up!

{31 Days To organize the "hidden" areas of your home} Day 22~ Grocery Shopping/coupons

Now that you have organized your weekly menus it's time to go shopping. I know it may seem like grocery shopping should be an easy area to organize. Just write down what you need and go to the store-right? Sounds simple enough but for years I would go food shopping only to get home and realized that I had forgotten to buy something I needed. Or that I had cut out several coupons to use and forgot them at home or in my purse etc. Over the years, I have heard about several different ways to organize this task. One magazine I read years ago suggested to write your shopping list in the same order as the aisles in the store. I must confess, I did try this for a while but then one day the store decided to reorganize their aisles without telling me first so and I had no time to adjust my shopping list! The nerve. I really wasn't that put out but saw the reality that this option would probably be a time-waster in the long run. It also did not solve the problem of organizing the coupons. One of my long time friends is a major couponer. She has a huge system in file boxes that she takes to the store with her. Years ago I joined her in this type of couponing. I realized that there were many products that I was buying just because I had a coupon and not because we needed the item. So I wanted to achieve a happy medium. Now I only take coupons for things that I am planning on buying or know we will need. That being the case, I saw an idea on line to write your shopping list on a legal size envelope and put the coupons you are going to use inside. I had my wonderful husband make this into a printable pdf document. All you need to do is put a business size envelope in your printer and print side one. After it is printed flip the envelope over and print if you want the back side printed with reminders. After I make my menu for the week I print out an envelope and add all of the ingredients I will need for the week onto the list. I like to keep the envelope in the kitchen so I can easily add anything that we run out of. Once I have all my items on the list I go through the coupons in the paper and see if there is anything that I will be purchasing and add them to the envelope. On shopping day just grab the envelope and go. Click here to download the free envelope shopping list. 

{31 Days To organize the "hidden" areas of your home} Day 21~ Menu Planning

Today I am going to share a few ideas on organizing a weekly menu plan. Over the past several years, I have heard several different sources say that one thing that is going by the wayside in our country is the family dinner hour. I have also heard the statistics that many families turn regularly to fast food or take out several times a week. Not only can our budget not handle this type of meal time but I don't think it is a very healthy way of eating. It may seem that as a homeschool mom, I have plenty of time during the day to figure out what's for dinner. I may be home, but between schooling my children and running to lessons and other activities during the week, I have fallen into the rut of fast food/take out cuisine or running to the store every day to pick up something quick to make. Don't get me wrong, I love a good rotisserie chicken just like the next gal, but this really isn't the way I want my family to remember our home life. So- I sat down one day with my calendar. Wait....calendar? Yes my calendar. I wanted to see what things were going on each day/evening and which day/evening we would be home. On the days that we would be home during the day but had an evening activity, I planned a meal that could be made in the afternoon but would be easy to clean up like tacos, spaghetti etc. On the days that we would be gone most of the day I chose a crock-pot meal. Then, I went from the meals to the shopping list and wrote out what I needed. From this simple plan, I decided that I would pick one day a week to try a new recipe. For a season, when my oldest was learning to plan meals, I had her choose one breakfast, lunch and dinner to make each week. I let her choose which days she wanted to fix which meals and we put them into the plan. I must say that we not only have decent meals each week but I saved money. We do, occasionally, still pick up a rotisserie chicken but not as often.

Do you have a way of planning your weekly menus? I'd love to hear any and all tips from my readers so leave a comment. 

Tomorrow's topic- Organizing that grocery list!

{31 Days To organize the "hidden" areas of your home} Day 19~ A Cleaning Schedule

Cleaning the house is not a "hidden area" but I thought that it would be good to share some ideas to keep things clean after they are all organized. Having an OCD nature, this area has never really been a struggle for me but I know there are some out there that do struggle with how and where to start cleaning the house. (My struggle was the opposite- I didn't know when to stop cleaning my house and live a little.)  Many years ago, a friend told me about the book "Sidetracked Home Executives". This book was written by sisters, Pam Young and Peggy Jones, who call themselves "the slob sisters". Their lighthearted writing style tells how they came out of their slobbish ways and developed a cleaning/home management system that really works. It uses a note card system and divides chores throughout the month. I began using the system so that when I completed a job I could file it away until next month and not keep obsessing about it. (That's a whole other blog series!) It begins by having you set up a basic weekly plan that works with your schedule. Once that has been decided, the book lists lots of cleaning chores that need to be done and how often to do them. The system really is easy enough for anyone to use- you just have to have the commitment to look at your card each day and do what you planned. Amazon has the book for around $10. If you are struggling with this area it would be $10 well spent. 

Maybe you are not totally sidetracked but are still wondering why have a cleaning schedule? Well- for me- it saves me from that last minute rushing around to clean up the house before we have people over. We can have people drop by unannounced and everything is usually picked up and cleaned. It helps me not be anxious or embarrassed. My Grammy would be so proud! Her famous saying was-"Don't ever leave the house without everything in its place. You never know, you could have an accident and strangers might have to bring you home. What will they think then?!" This may quite possibly be the reason behind the OCD!!

Feeling Like Fall

With the cooler temperatures today I was really feeling like something "Fallish", so for dessert tonight I made a really yummy yet very healthy Quick Baked Apple. I usually don't use my microwave for anything more than steaming vegetables or re-heating leftovers but I do use it for Quick Baked Apples. 

In a Ziploc bag add 1 apple, cored and sliced
1/4 tsp cornstarch and a few shakes of cinnamon.
You can also add a small handful of raisins or dried cranberries.
Zip the bag but leave a small opening in the zip-top
for steam to vent. 

Microwave for 2 minutes and then dump in a bowl.
(I added a few dark chocolate chips at this point)

And what's dessert without a small splurge of real whipped cream?

So "Fallish"......................So easy...........................So good!

Getting Ready for "The Girls"

We are getting ready to add three more "girls" to our family...but not the human kind. We are getting three laying hens. A family we know is moving and they can't take their chickens with them. We met the chickens a few nights ago and Abi is thrilled. One of them is named Claudia but the other two did not have names. Abi's mission for the past few days has been choosing the perfect names for the other two chickens. Yesterday she announced that she would name one of them Jemimah. This afternoon, while we were getting supplies to start the coop, she chose Esmeralda for the other one. Abi will be starting 4-H in September so this will be a perfect project for her to work on. We are under a bit of a time constraint and summertime is the season where there is not as much extra cash-flow so I had to figure out what we could use for a coop without the expense of purchasing a pre-made one. So I turned to my favorite ideas site, "Pinterest", and searched for chicken coop ideas. I found several that I liked and then happened on one that was made from a dog house. That got me thinking and I put an email out to my fellow homeschool moms asking if anyone had a dog house they were no longer using. With in a few minutes one of my dear friends emailed back offering a dog house that they were no longer using. One of the "Pinterest" articles mentioned getting some supplies from a local Habitat for Humanity resale store. We stopped by our local re-sale store today and found two gallons of paint for $5.00 each. The one gallon looked like a dark reddish brown and the other was white. Good enough for us. Well, when we got home, and I mixed up the darker color to paint the sides of the coop, we found a pleasant surprise. The color was not reddish brown but.................

............................................................PURPLE  

For those who don't know, purple is my favorite color. Abi got right in on the action and helped paint the coop. Dan started the roof tonight but will finish it on Saturday morning. Hopefully we will have the pen done on Saturday and then it is just a matter of time until we bring home the "girls". 

This Week's Project

I have been "re-decorating" our bedroom for over a year now. Yes,  a year. It has been evolving slowly but the time it is taking is paying off. It all started when I wanted to move my daily homschooling area into my room to keep Abi focused a bit better. That involved giving up my double closet to create a reading niche. (Fortunately Abi's room also has two double closets so I took one of those for my clothing) We had an old recliner in the basement so up it came along with a floor lamp and that's as far as I got. Because we left the closet shelf for storage I wanted to make a valance of some sort to hide the "stuff". I just couldn't make up my mind on what to use. A few months ago, I was at a yard sale and saw a bag of valances for $1.00! 

The walls in the room are a light sage green and I've accented with purple (of course) touches. The quilt I have on the bed currently has a cream colored background. The valances have a lace edging that I absolutely love. After a bit of brainstorming with mom, I hung two valances at the top of each windows, as is. I took two of the valances and sewed them together to create tiers and then cut them in half to make a cafe style curtain for the bottom.  I think They turned out great!

Now what to do with closet shelf I wanted to hide. I had 3 valances left so I sewed them together too. My wonderful husband found three curtain rods in the basement that were the perfect sizes, and within a few minutes, we had everything hung up. 

I just finished this quilted wall hanging last week and it really gives the nook that little bit of cosy it needed. (you can't tell from this picture but the center block is a quote about nature and all the other blocks are flowers or birds- perfect for a CM education) I don't like the book shelf I am using right now but my plans are to put shelves along the end of the closet wall. I am in search of a more comfortable chair as well. The springs in this one are shot but it is working for now. I have always wanted a quiet place to read in my bedroom and I am so thankful I have put this together for less than ten dollars. The quilt cost me about nine of that! 

Organizing??

For some reason, I usually get bitten by the organizing bug during the month of January. I don't know if it is because putting the Christmas decorations away makes me want to have everything in it's place or that the cold weather keeps me indoors more so looking at disorder makes me frustrated enough to organize it. I don't know, but bitten I am. There are several projects on my list this January, but I haven't been physically up to doing them, so I started thinking what needs organizing that I can do sitting down? 

It took me a few days, but one night while I was "blogging" I realized that I had bookmarked so many sites in my  favorites list and wondered how many of those sites were actually still functioning. Aha-- an organizing project I could do sitting down! It only took me a few hours to go through each bookmark. I can't believe how many sites "could not be found". There were also many sites that I had bookmarked that when I went to them I wondered why I had saved it. I decided to add "folders" and "file" each bookmark so that I could find things easier. It may not be much, no one will see it but me, but it makes me feel like I accomplished something. 

Next project..... 

This is NOT my closet but mine is not much better!

                           

Chicken Pot Pie Soup

I have been meaning to add this recipe for a few weeks. We invited some dear friends of ours over for dinner earlier this month and I wanted to try something new. Our friends were bringing freshly baked bread (so good it would knock your socks off) and I thought that a hearty soup would be a great accompaniment. After several Internet searches, I settled on this recipe by Aaron McCargo Jr. from the Food Network. I did make three substitutions, I used turnips instead of potatoes, I used one packet of Swanson's Chicken Flavor Boost instead of bouillon cubes, and I used chicken broth instead of water. Enjoy!

4 medium russet potatoes, peeled and diced small

2 quarts water

 1 1/2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 Tbs. bouillon flavoring

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 small white onion (about 1/4 cup)

2 stalks of celery, diced

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp. Italian seasoning

1 tsp. cracked black pepper

1 1/2 lbs. frozen mixed vegetables

1 cup heavy cream

pinch of salt

1 refrigerated pie crust

Directions:

Add diced potatoes to a large bowl filled with cold water. Set aside. Bring 2 quarts of water to boil. Add chicken, reduce heat to a simmer and allow to poach; about 8-10 mins. Dice the chicken when cooled. In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions and the celery, cooking until translucent, 2 min. Stir in the flour and whisk until it forms a roux. Add the Italian seasoning and pepper and cook for 3 more minutes. Whisk the roux into the broth and bring back up to a boil. Drain the potatoes. Add the potatoes and the chicken to the broth over low heat. Stir in the frozen vegetables. Place a lid on the pot and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Stir in cream and a pinch of sea salt and cook for 5 more minutes. Preheat the oven as directed on the pie crust package. Lay the pie crust on a baking sheet and place into the oven. Cook according to package instructions or until the pie crust is golden brown. When the crust is cooled break it up into pieces. Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with the pie crust. Makes 6-8 servings.

The Tale of Two..... Gingerbread Houses

One of my very favorite Christmas traditions is the Christmas Eve building of the gingerbread houses. Both Dan and I have German decent and we've always looked forward to including this part of our heritage. Last year we bought a pre-made kit with everything included to decorate a sweet little house. This year, I decided to use the gingerbread house cookie cutters (that have been on my shelf for years, unopened) and make the gingerbread myself. I found a great recipe, everything baked perfectly, and dried nicely overnight. Abi and I chose a few candies from our quick outing to the grocery store this afternoon, including ready made frosting (which I don't typically buy) to use in the extravaganza! This year, since I made the dough from scratch, we had enough for both Abi and I to decorate our own houses this year...oh how excited she was.

Daddy fixing Abi's house

Well everything was going along just fine.....the houses were nearly finished......Abi stepped out of the room to go get my camera and as I was adding the finishing touches to my house........... Abi's house fell...SPLAT.....I was struck speechless as I began to feel the devastation Abi was going to have when she returned to the kitchen and......SPLAT mine caved in as well! After hugging away the tears I couldn't help the giggling that came forth.(from me, not Abi) 

My "Masterpiece"

Enter Daddy to the rescue.....Dan gently picked up the pieces of Abi's house, filled the center with crumbled newspaper and got it standing again. (we can't remove the 'Good n Plenty' box bracing up the roof on one side but other than that..she stands)

It reminded me of how our heavenly Daddy, gently picks up the broken pieces of our lives, puts us back together and helps us to stand again. May we all know His great love for us this Christmas Season. He sent His son Jesus for our peace, our health, our anything we need...HE is the Great I AM. 

Abi and her house!

Shalom & Merry Christmas

Abi's New Room

Well after patiently waiting for several coats of paint to dry Abi got her new room!

Drum roll please...........

We hung the quilt Nonna made for her on the door

Purple bunk beds

Toy Shelf

Books and Legos

 Now she can look outside when
 she practices piano

Enough space under the bunk for tea!

She is pleased as punch! (And so is mommy)