How’s your weekend going so far? Mine has been nice and relaxing.
There’s been surveying of the wind damage to the roof and picking of the new shingle color.
A little cleaning.
Chocolate Chip and Frosted Orange Cranberry.
And a little stitching with my lap dog buddy.
Which resulted in a mug cozy. ‘Cause I’m a sipper and only halfway through the tea, it gets cold.
Have a Happy Sunday!
XOXO,
Anna
…but all I found were some shingles. We had a LOT of rain and storms and WIND (with a tornado in the area.) Lots of wind. Remember my sad looking roof? I think we’re pushing that poor ol’ roof a little too hard — after the 70+ mph winds some of those poor ol’ shingles aren’t there anymore. Oops. We’re in the middle of getting new roof estimates — they just aren’t coming in as fast as the wind. Pass the buckets, please.
So, anyway, there’s been more knitting around here. I finished these socks a few weeks ago in record (for me) time. Started on Monday and finished on Friday. That will almost surely never happen again — it was a lucky week with lots of airport time. Now I can be Melly’s twin — someday she’s going to take me on a Harley ride and we’re going to wear our matching socks, right, Melly?
I got this yarn at Cami’s the last time we were there. It was sitting on top of a shelf in a tangled mess, but Melly’s socks were in progress, so I knew I had to have it. While we sat and talked, I untangled it and then Sweet Blogless Rob put it on the ballwinder for me. I don’t have a ball band, but Cami says it’s Trekking 126. It was great to work with and I love the colors that scream neapolitan ice cream. Although, what’s up with that icky lighter brown stripe there? Don’t tell me that doesn’t remind you of diaper poop. You know it does.
I would have been happier if they’d just left that poopy color out. Oh well. They still make me think of ice cream anyway. Yum-m-m-m-y! Put that on your grocery list this week for a few extra calories!
And speaking of extra calories, have you all seen the Happy Weight Calculator? You can calculate your ideal weight, and oh boy {note of sarcasm} it says I don’t need to lose anything. Gr-r-r-eat. Translation: I’ve reached an age where it’s acceptable to be portly. Oh joy. While I was there, I took the liberty of putting MyDadLovesMeBestSister’s stats into the calculator, and it says she needs to gain 20 lbs. Even with the unhappy weight calculator (i.e. conventional wisdom) she needs to gain 10 lbs. Now you know what I’m dealing with. Can I have a little sympathy please? I’m thinking about changing her name to SkinnyB*tch.
In the meantime, I’m having another bite of ice cream. And I’ll console myself with the fact, that after I wear holes in these socks, they’ll make a matching ice cream cozy for neapolitan ice cream.
Have a Happy Week (I hope it has ice cream in it {wink}{wink})!
XOXO,
Anna
It’s the first Thursday of the month so that means it’s time for another recipe box swap. As always, Randi, at I Have to Say, is hosting and this month it’s a no-theme month, so we can post one of our favorite recipes.
I have a new favorite this month! When we had our quilty peep sewing day last weekend, Peep Jewels brought an awesome Lemon Dessert. I LOVE creamy foods and nuts and this recipe combines the two. Jewels has very kindly allowed me to share this recipe — I think you’ll like it, especially if you need something good for your next friend or family get-together. You can find the recipe HERE. Thanks Jewels for sharing your great recipe! (Excuse that stray nut in the creamy top, it jumped up there from the crust.)
I’ve recently been given several awards and {gasp} I can’t remember who they’ve been from. Two that I do remember were from the adorable Petits Details and Not-So-Plain Jane. They both have beautiful blogs that I enjoy reading, and just like Jewel’s Lemon Dessert, I think you’ll enjoy them too. If you’ve given me an award and I’ve forgotten it, I’m so sorry — it’s a well known fact here in ThimbleannaLand that I’m forgetful and that I’m just awful with awards. They make me blush. Anyway, thanks are in order, so THANK YOU. I do very much appreciate the blog love!
And while we’re on the subject of extreme blogging kindness and my awful manners, Ms. Geranium sent me a cute little Valentine pillow and I’m dreadfully late in expressing my thanks. In my defense, apparently the postman was fondling my pillow, because the postal service had it for 2 1/2 weeks. It could have gone to Scotland and back twice in that amount of time! So, THANK YOU Sharon, I love my new little pillow and I’m looking forward to adding it to my Valentine decorations every year. Isn’t it cute?
Thanks to Woollie Wanderings (another fabulous new discovery) I found out that the woman who did all those teeny tiny sweaters for Coraline lives right here in Indiana. If you haven’t been to her website, you should check it out — her art is a-m-a-z-i-n-g. (And look Cassie — she has 10 yr. old triplets, too!)
After the last post, Miss Marzie asked if she could see more of the pendants that the quilty peeps and I made last weekend. Of course you can … and please excuse my poor manners! We shamelessly copied some of the Keep Calm and Carry On knock-offs. We also tried a new thing this time … we put fabric on the back side of some of them. It worked out surprisingly well. This one is 2 x 2 inches.
Can you read this one ok? Is says I Am (next time I’ll put I’m) a Material Girl (want to see my fabric?) I really like the fabric that we put on the back of this one. This one is 1 x 3 inches.
This one is probably my favorite, with my all-time favorite quote from Despair.com. They have some REALLY funny stuff over there and I’ve been a huge fan for years. And boy, if there’s ever been a better time for their de-motivational stuff, now is it!
And finally, I’ll leave you with a shot of my two little buddies. Whenever I’m on the computer, they insist on lying on the desk by me. I put them on the floor…they jump back up…I put them on the floor…they jump back up…over and over again. I finally gave up and put a blanket up here to protect the desk. I figured I could spend all my time messing with the kitties, or I could get something done. TheManoftheHouse is having a Cow. But then, he’s in the other room and the kitties know that. ;-) These are going to be two very sad kitties when little Paul has to go back home. ;-(
Whew! That’s it. I’m sure you’re relieved — if you’re still with me — I heart you! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
XOXO,
Anna
Well Hello! Did all you invisible friends have a good weekend? Mine was pretty busy with activities that ranged from some cleaning, knitting and then ripping out that which was knitted, and stripping wallpaper. Good clean fun! In the middle of it all I had a wonderful day with my quilty peeps (we missed you Gurney!) We like to get together every now and then for a sewing day, and Saturday was the day.
We started the day off by teaching the peeps how to make soldered pendants. I’m paying forward the skills that Beckie taught me just over a year ago. I sure wish Beckie had been here though — I think I’m not quite up to Beckie’s standards. The pendants I made at Beckie’s are still my best ones. Anyway, Junie and Jewels did a great job — I hope they’ll try them again.
Shortly before lunchtime, MeMum joined us which added to the fun. We stopped soldering so that we could make an appetizer (more on that later). Then I made lunch while Junie finished up her pendants, Jewels started sewing and MeMum got her project unpacked.
After lunch, it was back to work. Junie worked on an Amy Butler bag. This is the lining. I forgot to get a shot of the rest of the fabric — I think it was Amy Butler fabric and I loved it. The handles were big blue/gray polkadots.
Jewels worked on a bunny pincushion. She’s a HUGE I Love Lucy fan and she decided to use some of the cute new Lucy fabric in her bunny. This is going to be one adorable bunny!
And MeMum worked on binding her flying geese quilt. She hand quilted this quilt, which as you know, takes a long time, so it will be fun to see this quilt finally finished.
And I worked on….puttering. Didn’t get much done. I had a hard time deciding what to do and finally just ended up cutting out some blocks. Not much exciting to show there.
So … back to that appetizer. MyDadLovesMeBestSister is the queen of fabulous Brie recipes and she made some last year for SweetiePie’s wedding shower. I liked one of them so much I made it for my book group in December and it was a big hit. Junie hosted a wedding shower last weekend and she used it too. Since she had some extra ingredients, we decided to make it for our sewing day and take pictures for all of you invisible friends — you know, just in case you need a great appetizer recipe to add to your repertoire.
You will need:
1 package frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 Small wheel Brie Cheese (the one pictured here was perfect for the four of us, but I used a bigger size for my book group)
1 small jar apricot preserves
1 bag slivered almonds
We debated about whether to trim the crust off of the Brie or not. MyDadLovesMeBestSister and I didn’t trim it and it was fine. But Junie did trim it, so she showed me how she did it. I’ll probably trim the crust from now on — I think it makes the finished brie easier to cut into and it’s good to make things easy on your guests.
The package of pastry should have two sheets in it. Place one sheet on top of the other one and roll them out into a 14 inch square.
Take the cover of the Brie and press it lightly onto the puff pastry. This will give you a guide for placing your ingredients.
Sprinkle a layer of almonds onto the puff pastry.
Spoon some apricot preserves onto the almonds. We made the layer about 1/4 inch thick.
Place the Brie wheel on top of the apricot preserves.
Pull the corners of the puff pastry up around the Brie. Trim off excess dough and then put a bit of water on your fingers and then onto the dough to help seal the seams.
Flip the brie pastry over and place seam side down onto a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Brush the top of the pastry with an egg wash (one egg whisked with a tablespoon or two of water) and place some decorative cutouts (from the leftover puff pastry) onto the brie.
Finish by brushing the entire puff pastry with the egg wash. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 25 minutes. To keep from browning too much, we tented aluminum foil over the Brie for the first 15 minutes. After 25 minutes, I thought it could use a little more time, so I bumped the temperature up to 400 degrees and kept an eye on it for another 5 to 10 minutes. I really don’t think 25 minutes is quite long enough to get the brie nice and soft.
Remove from oven and Voila! Serve with crackers while still warm. This is YUMMY, Yummy!!! I promise, your guests will love it.
Thank you, Thank you Junie, Jewels and MeMum for spending a fabulous day together (and for being the hand models in my pictures LOL.) A day spent with the quilty peeps and MeMum is the BEST! I hope we can do it again soon.
XOXO,
Anna