Thimbleanna

Happy Birthday…

…Wienerhead!!!

Cupcake Cake

Today is MyDadLovesMeBestSister’s birthday. Remember that cake decorating kit I gave my niece in for her birthday in January? She’s been practicing away, and she wanted to make her mother’s birthday cake.

Cupcake Cake

So, she came over last night and we made a cupcake cake, using the Wilton giant cupcake pan (which is available at many stores as well as online — I got mine with a 50% off coupon from JoAnn’s). I showed her just a few little things and she did the rest all by herself. Didn’t she do a great job? (And btw, if you happen to use this pan, you need to bake the bottom of the cake separately from the top — it doesn’t take as long to bake and the top will be overdone if you do them together as the pan suggests.)

Cupcake Cake

I hope you’re all having a wonderful weekend. I got home from my trip a day late (thank you midwest thunderstorms!) so I’ll be back when I’m caught up!

XOXO,
Anna

A Cookbook for Sisters

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Ahem.

Camille is having a quilt giveaway, so you better run over there and register. And you must know how it pains me to send you over there, thus decreasing my chances of a win. (Ok, I jest — but if you go, you could mention that I sent you, which would give me an extra chance, thus negating the fact that I sent you in the first place LOL! That means you too, you quilty peeps, ’cause I’m sure Camille will let you register if you’re blogless!) It’s a beautiful quilt — ’cause that’s the only kind that Camille knows how to make!

A week or so ago, Junie Moon posted a beautiful family cookbook that she made for family Christmas gifts in 2001. So, I thought I’d show you my version of a similar project. (Do we all have a project like this???)

Sisters Cookbook

My mother(1) has one sister(1) who has two sons(2) and five daughters(5) and for several years, my sister(1) and I(1) and everyone else talked about making a family recipe book because we love to share recipes. We talked and talked, so finally I just decided to do it. Everyone had already given me recipes, so I gathered together 11 (1+1+2+5+1+1) spiral bound notebooks and did a lot of copying and gluing and built some cookbooks. We took a picture of MeMum and her sister on a tandem bike and named the book Sisters because we’re all a sister to someone in the family.

Sisters Cookbook

I divided the book into sections for each member of the family and included their recipes and some pictures of each family. I tried really hard to be sure that everyone from each generation had the same number of recipes and pictures included. The first section contained recipes from our grandmother, including the one pictured above which was in her own handwriting.

Sisters Cookbook

I also tried to include a few older family pictures, like the one above of my grandpa playing with a train and the one below of my grandma with one of my cousins in the 1960’s. Grandma would probably hate that picture, but I love it because it looks just like I remember her — she died not too long after this picture was taken.

Sisters Cookbook

Another picture I love is the one below of the turkeys. My grandfather was a turkey farmer when I was very young, and my memories of him on the farm are faded, so I treasure the turkey pictures.

Sisters Cookbook

There were more contemporary pictures too, like the one below of my goofy cousin doing her Vanna White pose to demonstrate her sister’s new kitchen cupboards. Isn’t she a cutie?

Sisters Cookbook

Some of the pages are pretty plain. The plan was that I provided the books with all the recipes and each person should provide stickers for their section for 11 books (’cause stickers for that many pages can get pretty expensive for just one person to buy!) But you know how that goes — trying to coordinate people living in different parts of the country isn’t easy. That doesn’t really matter anyway — the important thing is that we all have each other’s recipes! (Oooh look, there’s MeMum, stylin’ in the 70’s.)

Sisters Cookbook

It was a really fun project, but I think if I had it to do over again, I might make a Taste book like Gumbo Lily posted about this week. They look so professional and pretty and that way, everyone could just buy their own if they wanted one.

I’m sure everyone in my family all have new recipes to share — maybe we should do a taste book! Or, how ’bout a blogger cookbook? Wouldn’t something like that be fun — a book with all your favorite bloggers’ recipes??? Hmmmm……

XOXO,
Anna

A Finished Quilt

Have you all had a good weekend?  I’ve had a fun, relaxing weekend.  I didn’t mean to spend all day cleaning yesterday — I was just going to clean out the little cupboard that holds my yarn.  After that I planned to spend the day quilting.

Shower Quilt

But, when I got the cupboard cleaned out, I looked around and decided the family room needed to be cleaned.  After that was all cleaned, well, I could see the messy breakfast room, so that had to be cleaned too.  And then the kitchen.  You get the idea….one thing led to another and before I knew it the day was gone.  Do you ever do that — start cleaning and you can’t stop?

Shower Quilt

Then today, I washed and folded the fabric that I bought in Chicago last week.  Then I decided I’d go see MeMum for an hour or two and work on the binding to the quilt we tied for SweetiePie and TheFirstChild at the bridal shower.  Well, HBO was running all the episodes of John Adams and we don’t have HBO, so I bet you can guess what happened.  I got sucked into John Adams and watched the first three episodes (it’s wonderful!)  I’m happy to report I got the binding all done though!  And did I ever show you the back of the quilt?  We found this cute print with home and family words on it.

Shower Quilt

There wasn’t enough for the whole quilt, so It’s just a big giant 40″ x 40″ block in the middle of the back.  Anyway, after all that John Adams and sewing, I came home to prepare for my monthly week in New Jersey.  I made the beef stroganoff casserole and the chocolate chip cookie mix that Jewels gave us in Chicago last week (they are yummy — thanks Jewels!)  Now my lil’ family will have a few goodies to munch on while I’m away this week.

Oh, and I almost forgot — look at the goodies I got in the mail this past week!  Sweet Vallen sent me some Rose Water and it needed some padding in the envelope, so she wrapped it in that fantastic silky fabric with the big red flowers — isn’t it cool???  Thanks Vallen!  I can’t wait to try the rose water — I’ve seen lots of great recipes on the web that use it.

And that’s not all — Darlene and Thimbles sent me and Mama Bunny that adorable pincushion with some cute pins.  I was so happy to see that Thimbles didn’t forget his Mama!  I love pincushions, and this one is so cute with all the sewing things on it.  Thanks Darlene — I love the way it’s stuffed — will you tell us what you stuffed it with?

AprilGoodies

Thank you, thank you Vallen and Darlene for being so thoughtful and kind.  {Smooch}{Smooch}
I hope you all have a fun week planned.  I’ll be working in New Jersey and catching up on all of you from my hotel room!

XOXO,
Anna

Beautiful Thread, Etc.

I have a few leftover items from our weekend in Chicago. On our way home, we stopped at a fun yarn shop, Idea Studio in LaGrange, Illinois. They have some very nice yarns and lots of shop samples. I especially thought these little dresses were pretty cute.

Crochet Dresses

They made me think of a certain little Bub in Australia whose mother crochets like a dream! The woman in this shop told us all about a sock war they’d just finished (it’s mentioned on their web site). It reminded me of dish rag tag a little bit, although they were knitting fish socks ( I wish I had a picture — the cuff looked like fish scales and the top was shaped like a fish mouth) and not dish rags. And they weren’t in teams — it was every man for himself.  Anyway, if you’re in the Chicago area, we thought this place was definitely worth a visit.
Another weekend leftover is my discovery of this fabulous thread.

Thread

Am I the only one who’s never heard of this embroidery thread?  Ohmygosh, we saw a vendor at the quilt show who had several drawer-fuls of the most beautiful colors.  I wanted one of each of them to bring home with me.  I restrained myself however, and only purchased a little six-pack of pastel colors, plus a bit of red and blue for red and blue work.  I read somewhere that this is the equivalent of using three strands of embroidery floss, so I’m a little worried about using it, as I’m a two-strand embroiderer.  I’m thinking maybe the beautiful colors will take my mind off of it though.

Thread

And one last weekend leftover, I saw this cupcake fabric in a big pack at the quilt show but didn’t buy it because I didn’t want all the other prints that came with it.  I found some at the Fabric Shack.  Yipee!  I love it!  How ’bout a cupcake bunny???

Chicago Bags

Now, I have some VERY distressing news.  You’ll probably want to sit down before I tell you.

Do you see any almonds in this ice cream?

Baskin Robbins

No.  You.  Do.  Not.  That’s because we can’t get Chocolate Almond here anymore.  According to the Baskin Robbins website, it’s now a regional ice cream and is only available in the southeast.  What????  What’s up with that???  Are southern people the only ones who like Chocolate Almond ice cream?  Can you southerners verify this — do you like it more than the rest of us????  Are they rationing almonds or something?  Or maybe they’re trying to help us fat midwestern Chocolate Almond ice cream lovers lose a few pounds?  I’m distraught.  My summer just won’t be the same.  I might have to send a letter.

Ok, I’m done now.  I hope you all have a beautiful spring/fall weekend!
XOXO,
Anna

The Busy Weekend

Whew! What a fun, happy weekend I’ve had! The whole thing was a big giant whirlwind — it all happened so fast. I had a great time with the quilty peeps. It’s so wonderful to have a girlfriend getaway — we really should do it more often.

We left early Friday morning for the Chicago Quilt Show. As soon as we got there, we made a bee-line for the vendors. I pretty much go to the quilt shows for the vendors these days — the quilts just haven’t seemed to be classic quilt show fare in a long time. I used to love to go to Paducah and I wonder if it’s still the same high quality show that it used to be. Maybe I was just spoiled by attending that show for several years? But, I digress (which isn’t hard to do…I think I’m still tired from my weekend!)

I looked for Sharon and Carol on and off all day but didn’t see them. Once it was time to check in to our hotel room, we left the show for awhile, and when we were re-entering the show, we ran into S & C as they were leaving. What a fun surprise! (We spared Sharon the “mask” greeting this time — but I still have them LOL) We split up again, but then met for dinner in the hotel. After dinner, we got together for some fun in our hotel room.

What a crack-up those two are. Can you spot the bloggers in the crowd???

Sharon & Carol

This is some very serious business! As is our tradition, they’re taking pics of all the booty. It was totally by accident, but can you tell which bed contains the blogger booty and which bed contains the non-blogger booty???

Goodies Goodies

And look again — that picture is too funny. Look how hap-hazzard the bed on the left is and how neat and tidy the bed on the right is — I didn’t even notice that before! What’s up with that??? You’ve probably guessed, the slovenly stuff belongs to the bloggy peeps! What the heck does that say about us bloggers LOL! Sharon claims the territory on the upper left of the blogger bed, Carol has the upper right and my stuff is toward the bottom. What was I thinking? I don’t need all that stuff! I couldn’t help it though — our closest quilt shop is 45 minutes away, so when I see all that fantastic quilty goodness in one place, I go weak in the knees. And, I blame a fair amount of it on Nanette too — seeing all those cute tumbling block quilts that she makes made me buy a tumbling block kit and I RARELY buy kits! Junie gets the prize for the non-blogger bed — look at all those neat rows of fat quarters. Don’t you just want to reach into that picture and rustle that stuff around a little? C’mon Junie — admit it, even YOU want to LOL!!! Jewels bought all the goodies on the left and Gurney claims that little pile up top. Gurney — I admire your strength. I’m blaming it on the fact that you have a brand-spanking new granddaughter and you had your mind elsewhere!

After we got done making a mess of our room, we cleaned things up a bit, broke out the diet pepsi, cupcakes and lemon bars (’cause we party hard LOL) and got down to some crochet business.

Crocheting

We worked on a little circular birthday tag (sorry, I forgot to take a picture — I think Sharon did though) and everyone did a great job. I was very proud of lil’ early bird Jewels — we were up WAY past her bedtime — it was well after midnight when everyone finished. Here they are in a serious moment of concentration — which was rare, most of the time Sharon or Jewels were cracking us up!

Crocheting

We met again in the morning for a leisurely breakfast. (For some reason we were plagued with sad-sack waiters for both meals — S & C are very unfairly blaming it on us quilty peeps LOL.) Then we went back to the quilt show for a few hours. Here’s Jewels and Junie with PamKittyMorning‘s Celebrity.

Alex Anderson

They’re having a very serious conversation about how much they miss Simply Quilts. The message was “Get Over It and Move On!” OkeyDoke! The two days were WAY too short and we had a fabulous time. Thanks for our cool new tote bags Sharon — we love them! And Jewels was a sweetheart and brought us some goodies too — Thanks Jewels!!!

So, that was Friday and Saturday. On Sunday morning, SweetiePie, TheFirstChild, MeMum and I got up bright and early to drive to Dayton for SweetiePie’s last bridal shower. SweetiePie had her final dress fitting just before the shower (when you live so far away, you have to squeeze in all these activities where you can.) There’s no dress peeking (wouldn’t want TheFirstChild to catch a glimpse, now would we?) but here’s a shot of her pretty shoes.

Wedding Shoes

We had a fun, fun time all the way there and all the way back. We laughed a ton. Let’s just say that there was a lot of “She Said That”* going on. And “Grandma” was the worst offender!
So, I’m a very lucky girl and I’ve had a wonderful weekend to carry me through this next month of fun work until the big day. Thank you, thank you Quilty Peeps, Sharon, Carol, and my little fambly for all the fun memories that will keep a smile on my face for a long, long time!

I hope you all had a great weekend as well — I have lots of blogs to catch up on and I’ve had lots of e-mail — if I’ve missed replying to you, please excuse me — rest assured that I have read everything though!

XOXO,
Anna

*The Quilty Peeps taught me a new game that we called “She Said That.” I’m pretty dense, so it took me a long time to catch on and it would take me even longer to explain it. But, if you watch The Office, you’ll know the dumb game!