father's day dinner

Yes, I realize I'm a week late with this, but here it goes:

We had a little of this from the garden

a few of these from the garden

and a few of these hot off the grill.



To make the chicken you clean the bird out, oil it up with olive oil, and rub on some salt, pepper, and spices (I used basil and oregano on one and thyme and sage on the other). Then you set it on top of a can of Diet Pepsi. (The recipe actually calls for a can of beer, but as beer is non existent in our house and Diet Pepsi is plentiful, we opted for Diet Pepsi. Actually - for 1 can we emptied the Diet Pepsi and filled it up with orange juice. They both tasted the same and neither one tasted of Diet Pepsi or orange juice.)


Then you put the chicken sitting on the can on the grill. You turn off the burner directly under the chicken and keep the side burners on low. Ours took about 50 minutes and it was SO good!

a quilt top!

Well, I have finally sewn together my red and white quilt top! It was a beast! All those triangles to cut, sewing them all together for strips (25 in each strip plus the little ends), then trying to sew together the strips when they're all different lenghths! I cut lots of tips off of triangles because it was so frustrating. I also didn't have enough strips and had to add about 9 inches to the bottom (but I didn't want to do any more triangles so I did the strips). I think it turned out pretty nice despite all the issues and how long it took. Now all I have to do is quilt and bind it! (That may take another year or so . . . )

did I tell you about my garden?

I think I forgot to mention it. I started some of it inside the house (which is still not planted outside because of the fence). Then my grandpa came over, brought some peas seeds, and helped me plant them. I also planted leeks, lettuce, beets, and tomatoes. Everything's been doing great except the tomatoes (because it's been rainy and cold for a while.)

The other night Charlie and Sam shelled the peas (if you've never done this, you must) and then we had a small bowl of them for dinner! They are SO good! You should grow some. But don't plant them in the heat, they like it chilly (beginning of spring, end of fall).

p.s. The other day I went out there to check on the garden and guess what I found?! Deer poop! I guess some deer have found my garden, even here in the city.

using up the stash

red and white, lime and yellow, red and turquoise (since the colors got blown out)

I made these bags last month with the intent purpose of using up some of my stash. I made a bag for each of my sisters, sisters-in-law, and my mom. I love how they turned out. I made each one in each girl's favorite color combination. They are made of leftover linen from skirts I've made and from little tiny quilt scraps. (Thanks for wanting to see them Tabby.)

addiction or obsession?

Either way it's bad. I joined a fabric swap for OOP and HTF fabrics. In case you're not as nerdy as me in fabric jargon - OOP is out of print and HTF is hard to find.

So I joined this swap on flickr. The idea is to trade some of your fabrics so that you can get more of the ones you might be missing. I had a few of these fabrics and was missing a few others, and so I began swapping. And as I checked that flickr page (at least every 5 minutes for 5 straight days) I realized that there was a lot of other fabric that I never even knew that I needed. And so I began buying fabric. Especially Japanese fabric. (Sometimes I wonder why I wasn't born Japanese. It is the first foreign country I was ever interested in visiting and I love pretty much anything made or designed there. I knew there was some great Japanese fabric out there, but it's more expensive, so I didn't go looking for it.)

I am admitting this addiction/obsession here because I want to stop. I have neglected the house, the laundry (thanks Dan for doing it this week), my husband, and my kids, and all sorts of other things. I think I need to quit the group, or at least only check it once a day or less. I need to start using my stash instead of just collecting.

And so I'm going to really try to sew this summer and use up at least 1 box of fabric. (I have several boxes, but will not admit to an exact number. It may or may not be in the double digits.)

Today I made aprons for the boys. That takes up lots of fabric, especially when they're reversible.

Thanks for listening. Hopefully I will get back on track this weekend!

New Baby River

My sister-in-law Emily had her baby yesterday! After 2 days of contractions! He is so adorable and tiny! Here are some photos of him. (Sorry they're not that great - I took them with my phone.) His name is River.

Girl Trip to Seattle

Over Memorial Day weekend I met my sisters and mom in Seattle. Because it's lovely and green there (and because I didn't bring my little camera) I took lots of pictures of flowers and plants. We went to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens, the Melting Pot, Pike's Market, and canoeing on Lake Washington. Did I mention that I'd love to live in Seattle? I loved it.

Luke is talking

Luke is now almost 2 and he's saying all sorts of things. It's very cute when he'll do it. I have several other videos where I'm trying to get him to talk and he just laughs at me. This morning he woke up saying "happy, happy, happy". Thankfully most of the time he is happy.

first things first

Since this happened over a month ago - I'm starting with it.

Sara, Travis, Laura, Grandma and Grandpa came to visit in April for Logan's graduation and Emily's baby shower. As I mentioned before, the boys loved their uncle Travis. There was lots of wrestling going on and Travis even played Pokemon with Sam for over an hour! Charlie pretty much got as much of Travis as he could. He's been asking daily when we get to see him again.

I had to take this picture of Emily and her pregnant belly rocking out. She's due any day now!





p.s. this is my 300th post!