Safari Adventures and Other Stuff

We survived the snow storm!!! It went on for two full days finally stopping by late Saturday afternoon. We had over 35cm of snow and very high snow drifts! Trevor went out to start shovelling the driveway. There were close to 3 foot drifts of snow behind the car! Fun times!








This is my neighbour's little walk through trellis in her back garden. This will give you an idea of the snow drifts she got in her back garden! There is a hill you walk down to her back yard. It is filled in with snow!!


While the snow storm was in it's full fury on Friday, I managed to get two animals made for the Jungle Boogie wallhanging. I already posted Ssssammmy the Sssslittering Ssssnake, but I never completed animal #3 before my last post. I would like now to introduce you to Alfred the Alligator!!!! He is a bit imposing, but I figured a nice gentlemanly butler style name would make him less angry.



A good friend of mine is a fabulous creative writer. I asked her last night if she would be interested in writing a little story around the animals I was making for Wil. She was soooo happy and excited about this and said she would love to! I want the story to be around Wil and his Safari Adventures and the animals he meets along the way. Once the story is made, I will then make it into a small 8" x 8" scrapbook that we can read together during our bedtime stories!

As for the rest of this weekend, I didn't do a heck of a lot on the sewing machine. I was in the mood to do a bit of hand sewing. Remember some time ago I spoke about the hexagon quilt I am doing by hand?



Well I took shook the dust off it (as I haven't played with it in months), set up my new Ott Lite I bought at Michaels the other night and camped out in the living room watching movies and listening to music while making more Grandmother's Garden blocks.



This afternoon I managed to cut out the rest of the black floral fabric to complete the blocks. This is how my dining room table looked this afternoon!!!




I am hoping to go to the fabric shop this week to buy the cream tone on tone fabric to use as the spacer hexagons to start putting the blocks together.

Tonight, I plan to work on my friend's baby quilt I am giving her for her baby shower at the end of this month. My next stage is to layer it, baste it and then quilt it. I think I'll spray baste it with the505 Spray (I SWEAR by that stuff). It's a quick and dirty method and it means I don't have to be down on my haunches in my 'delicate condition' for too long. Hopefully if I'm lucky I'll get started on the machine quilting too!

I have the night to myself as Trevor is gone out to bond with his male companions over the Superbowl game. Years ago when I lived in Nova Scotia I used to watch football, but these days it's not of interest to me anymore. So tonight I will blast my nice cultured music (some classical or Josh Groban or Andre Rieu or Andrea Bocelli) on the iPod and work away on the baby quilt! Later I'll sit down with Mum in her apartment to watch the next "Masterpiece Theatre" production on PBS. The next few shows are from Jane Austen's books. I love her stories!

Til Next Time!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

I Love Snow Days!!!!

Today we are thick and heavy into a grand ole snow storm/blizzard!!!! We are expected to get anywhere up to 50cm of snow and winds between 100/120 km/hour!!! wooo hoooo!! It started to snow last night and it is nasty nasty out there now! I think there are at least 3 feet snow drifts just behind the car already!! The storm is suppose to continue overnight and end sometime tomorrow morning. I decided to create my own snow day today and take an annual leave day off work. I found out a little later today that the office stayed open until noon time at which time the building closed down.

So what have I been doing so far on my snow day?? Why playing in my sewing room of course!!!! I have been working away in the Jungle making the animals for Jungle Boogie for Wil's room. So far I have two critters completed! Say hello to "Gordon the Giraffe"



and "Ssssaaammmy the Ssssllitthery Snnnnnake"!!!



This evening I will be working on the alligator. I still have to come up with a name for him. I'm sure as I'm stitching and appliqueing him his name will come to me.

I also decided on a cold stormy night like this, we needed some yummy comfort food for supper. I made our favourite Cod au Gratin!!! YUM!!! Here is the recipe if anyone is interested in trying it out themselves!

Cod au Gratin



3 small fillets cod fish (fresh or frozen)
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp flour
2 cups milk
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
Pepper to taste
3/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1 tsp savoury (dill or tarragon are good substitutions)
1 1/2 cups shredded medium cheddar cheese
1 cup bread crumbs or cracker crumbs. (I like to use my own homemade bread crumbs)
2 Tbsp Olive Oil

Scald the milk in the microwave for 4-5 minutes. In a medium saucepan, add the butter and flour and cook together for 2 minutes. Slowly pour in the scaled milk whisking constantly. Cook until the sauce begins to thicken. Add the lemon zest, Dijon mustard and season with pepper to taste. Add the parmesan cheese just before pouring on the fish.

Arrange the fish in the bottom of a greased 9 x 9 inch baking dish. Pour the sauce over the fish. Top with the cheddar cheese.

Mix the bread crumbs (or cracker crumbs) with the olive oil and sprinkle over the cheese. BAke for 45 minutes to one hour at 350 degrees F until bubbling and the top has evenly browned.

Now that the kitchen is all cleaned up again, the dishwater doing it's thing and another loaf of bread being made in the bread machine, I'm off with my hot cuppa Winter Spice tea to my sewing room again to make an alligator!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Is It a Crime.....

to have this much fun????? I have gone into full blown nursery designing/decorating mode and I'm stupidly happy with it all!!!!!! In my last post I showed you all photos of the room getting started and the valance I made for the window. Well over the last two days while at work the furniture was painted! OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm in LOVE with how it is turning out!!! Look at this GORGEOUS blue!!!!!!!!! I put the striped fabric next to it tonight and it is PERFECT!! This weekend I will start cutting out the runners for the two bureaus and the nightstand.





Just when I thought I was excited over the room so far, it got a little more crazy!!!! Trevor and I wanted to have a nice wallhanging to hang on the far wall, as that is where we plan to put the crib. So I did a bit of searching and blogging and searching some more and this is what we came up with!! JUNGLE BOOGIE from Fat Cat Patterns!! It is 54" square and it will be the perfect size for that wall!!! I got soooo excited I downloaded and printed off the entire pattern yesterday. After supper last night I got into my fabric stash and my bins of scraps and began pulling fabrics for each animal.







I couldn't WAIT to get home today from work and start putting together the first animal. Of the 8 animals I think the giraffe is my favourite, so of course I had to make him first! This is what I have got done so far!



This block alone is 16 1/2" x 30 1/2"!!!! I hated to stop appliqueing him tonight. It's a shame I have to work in the morning, I would much prefer to stay home making my Jungle Boogie wallhanging for my little boy!

On another note, I managed to trace out three more sewing motif embroidery blocks to prep for stitching last night after I pulled the fabrics for the animal safari wallhanging. These little embroidery blocks are the perfect size to take to work with me and stitch over my lunch break.



I also managed to get in Recipe #2 for this week in for supper last night. I made this FABULOUS Cheddar Chicken Broccoli casserole! My friend Mandy shared this recipe with me a week or so ago after I posted about my latest Kitchen Day. Mandy THANK YOU for a WONDERFUL and delicious supper! I had enough left over to freeze for another meal plus some extra for lunch today!!! This will be a regular meal in this house from now on!!!! She posted this recipe in my comments section of my Kitchen Day post, but I would like to post it here too should anyone be interested in trying this one out themselves! Mandy since you posted it already here on my blog comments, I hope you are okay with me posting it here too!!! :) The only difference I did with the recipe is cut up the chicken into smaller pieces.

Cheddar Chicken Broccoli Casserole


2-3 chicken breasts (cut into bite size pieces)
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 can cream of broccoli soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
salt/pepper to taste (I don't normally add salt to mine.... I prefer to cut out salt in some things I cook)
2 soup cans of milk
2 cups penne or rotini (whatever you have on hand)
3 cloves garlic chopped
large bag of broccoli florets
2 cups of shredded cheese of your choice. (I used the pre-shredded cheddar/mozza mixture from KRAFT)

Heat the oil in a skillet and brown the chicken pieces. Add 2 cloves of garlic and pepper to taste.

Boil the pasta until al dente.

In a large bowl, combine the two soups, milk and remaining one clove of chopped garlic. Mix well. Add the chicken and mix. Drain the pasta and add to the chicken/soup mixture. Mix well.
Pour this mixture into a large casserole dish. Cover in cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until cheese is bubbling.

Mandy tells me this recipe freezes well. Like I said earlier, I had alot left over and put some into a container to freeze for a later date. I don't say it will be in my freezer too long as it tasted AMAZING!!!

I received my swap partner's name for the Winter Swap I'm involved in. I started playing around with some ideas in my head tonight and I think I want to play with my embroidery machine with this little project!!!

Well that's all for now! The temperatures are going to plummet to -25 degrees celcius tonight with the windchill. Me thinks I'll be adding an extra quilt or two to the bed tonight!
For those of you who are also braving and hibernating this winter season stay warm.. For those of you further south and enjoying a nice sunny warm summer.. please think of us and blow some of that warm weather our way!!!!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Weekend Ramblings

I've kept good and busy since my last post. Between my sewing/quilting and my kitchen I have much to gab about today!

Let's see where to start. I find the best way for me to write my posts is to go over the photos I have taken over the week. I always have my camera close by to take photos of things that go on throughout the week.

.... 2 minutes later after looking through my past photos I know what I want to tell you all about .....

To start with it seems Trevor was playing with my camera and took a few more photos of Alexi. She has such a funny personality and such whimsy expressions. She loves to sit in this chair that is in the corner of my kitchen while we are working in the kitchen. She is such a cutie!!



I guess when it comes to the sewing part of this post I first want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to Viv from Highway Cottage in New Zealand. She sent me this beautiful little table topper. We were both involved with the Fall Mini Swap with the Quilting Bloggers. I will be sure this little topper is displayed this coming Fall season in my home. Thank you again Viv!!! It is too cute!



I have a few things that I managed to complete for January and to add to the "One Project a Month" challenge I'm participating in again this year. I completed the 2 sets of Santa Placemats I started before Christmas. I had hoped to complete them and use them over the holidays but time just didn't allow. This photo only shows 5 of the 8 I made because I had the other three upstairs in the living room last night as I was finishing up the hand stitching of the binding while watching a movie.





I also officially started the nursery yesterday. I started and finished the little curtain topper for little William's room. I just loooooove the fabric and how this valance turned out. I have never made a fitted valance before but with Mum's great experience she guided me through to the finish. The fabric looks fabulous next to the painted walls.







Tomorrow while I'm gone to work the painting of the furniture will be started. I have my old bureau when I was a little girl as well as the bureau and nightstand that belonged to my grandmother Flemming when she was a little girl. Once all three pieces are painted and in place I will get started on making the bureau runners. The crib will then be put together and then I will start on the bumper pads and the bed skirt.

Over my lunch hours at work, I have been sitting at my desk eating my lunch as I don't feel comfortable walking over to my aunt's house down the street from the office in my 'delicate condition' with the snow and ice. One of the things I like to do over my lunch hour is do some blogging and look at some new blogs. I came across some really beautiful blogs that I would love to share with you.

First of all is this one. "Bee in my Bonnet". What an amazingly talented lady!! I just looooooove her applique patterns and I really want to order one. My problem is deciding which one!

I also found a few other beautiful and talented quilters that I just wanted to share their blogs with! Check these out! "Pacific Patchwork", "Quilt Feather" and this one is another list of many quilting blogs you want to check out "Quilter Blogs".

As for my musings in the kitchen, I tried out a new cheesecake recipe on Wednesday evening. This one is called Pina Colada Cheesecake! All I can say is mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!! It took 4 packages of cream cheese so it was a nice big cheesecake. It also had coconut, pineapple and coconut milk to give it a yummy taste!!! I played around with my cake decorating tips to do a little decorate look to the top. Cheesecakes have a tendency of cracking on the top when it comes out of the oven, so I cover up the cracks with decorations and you will never tell it had cracks!!!







I also tried out a new hashbrown casserole for breakfast this Sunday morning. My friend, Crystal from work told me about this casserole she makes and loves. So I just had to give it a whirl. I didn't take a photo of it but it was sooooooo easy to make.
Take a package of McCains or Cavendish hash browns. Combine it with a cup of sour cream, a can of cream of mushroom soup and a cup of shredded cheddar cheese. Mix all the ingredients well and place it in a long casserole dish. Bake at 350 F for one hour. YUM!!! It is also good as leftovers, so I put the remaining casserole in some plastic containers for Trevor and I to have for our breakfast or lunch tomorrow.

And on that note, I think I have wanted to tell you what I wanted to for now. Today's tasks are to give Alexi her weekly bath, get a shower for myself as we are heading to Trevor's parent's home for supper this evening. Tonight I have to get the rest of nursery cleaned out and ready for painting in the morning. If time permits I might work on some hand stitching on a few projects I want to try out. I came across a couple more BOMs I just HAVE to get into!! Fat Cat Patterns, and Love Is

I need another BOM or project like I need a hole in my head!!!!

Ohh just before I leave, we have two little bird feeders on our patio... well one on the patio the other in the tree next to the patio. We love to watch the little junkos and other feathered friends munching on the birdseed. This little fella seemed like he was guarding the feeder. He stayed next to the feeder for close to an hour this morning while I was making breakfast.







While waiting for the first set of photos to upload I was looking out Trevor's "Man Cave" room window to look at the birds and the patio and tree is littered with the little cuties! And the guard bird is still there!! LOL funny things!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Results From My Kitchen Day

Whew!!! What a day I put in yesterday!!! It was alot more productive than I planned and I had fun doing it... even if I was 9 hours straight in the kitchen!!! LOL. (Needless to say my back, neck and legs are feeling it today).

So I started at 12:15pm yesterday. This is how my kitchen looked in the beginning.




By 3:30, it was looking more like this!!!




Ah, but the results once the last couple things came out of the oven and bread maker at 10pm that night was worth it!! Here is the loot!!!

(mmmmm the smell of chocolate chip cookies throughout the house is heaven!!!


From left to right: 6 meals of spaghetti, 6 meals of honey garlic meatballs, 4 meals of shrimp jambalaya (we had that for supper too), a plate full of homemade cod fish cakes (supper for tonight)

One pan of lasagne (I can get 6 meals for the two of us out of this)

top: a dozen pumpkin/cranberry muffins, middle: a dozen banana chip muffins, bottom: chocolate chip cookies, front: banana loaf, and two loaves of bread: cracked wheat and oatmeal raisin!!!


By 10:30 I got to put my feet up and watch Masterpiece Theatre for a little bit. Then it was off to bed. I hope to have at least one more big kitchen day (or perhaps break it down into two half days) before the baby is due. I figure the more meals I have made up in advance the less I have to worry about when my little boy arrives and I can focus more on him and then just pop something in the oven.. quick and dirty yet good for you meals!!!

Does anyone out there in blogland have some really good casserole dishes they could share with me? I'm looking for something that is freezer friendly!!

As for the quilting side of things, I think I'll take it easy today and start up something tomorrow evening. I just got the new Connecting Threads catalog in the mail this afternoon so I'm off to drool over all the pretty patterns and new fabric lines!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Alas the Weekend Is Finally Here!!!!

After the work week I had this week I am soooooooooo planning to enjoy and relax this weekend! I am actually contemplating a Kitchen Day tomorrow. I've been noticing there is more space in my freezer and I need to add more meals to it again. I find making up large batches of food and freezing them into meal sizes so much more convenient than having to come home every day from work and figuring out what to make. Some days between Trevor's irregular work schedule and other weekly commitments it's easy to just haul something out of the freezer that morning before work and then heat it up in the oven when you get home.

So I think today I will take a little run out to one of the grocery stores to pick up ingredients to make a lasagne, mac and cheese, meatballs, hashbrown casserole (as suggested from my good friend Crystal), and see if I can come up with another meal or two. I think I might also try out a new cheesecake. I have had my eye on a Pina Colada cheesecake recipe in my cheesecake book for sometime now. I believe I need to get it out of my system and make it for supper tomorrow night :)

As for the events in the sewing room this week, well I haven't been too productive this week. Now that I am into my 7th month of pregnancy and the fact that my iron level is so low, I have been feeling dead tired when I come home from work and all I feel like doing is napping either before or after supper. The energy level is a bit slower these days. Some days I have to fight with myself to move my butt and get things done. I have so much I need and want to accomplish before little William arrives. I will have to get my mojo moving this week and get some results in my sewing room even if it is just some hand sewing.

Speaking of, I did do a few little hand sewing jobs this week. So I suppose I was a little bit productive. Firstly, I managed to get another embroidery sewing motif block finished. I even managed to trace out and start embroidering the 3rd block in the series of 12.



Also, as I mentioned in my last post I added the nose and eyes to the Santa placemats, but for some reason blogspot wouldn't allow me to add any more photos (Gremlins or something). Well here they are! I hope to get started on the quilting of them this week.





I also thought I should post a photo of the Wallhanging I made for the Fall Mini Swap I was involved in. It has since been mailed off to my secret swapper. I hope she likes it! I had so much fun making it I plan to make a second one for myself but make mine into a cute throw cushion for this Fall. I still have plenty of the exact scrap fabrics I used in this one to make a duplicate!



I had so much fun with this past swap that yesterday I registered for the Winter Swap through the Quilting Bloggers site! I can't WAIT to find out my swap partner and get started on this next project!

As for my 2 recipes a week, I made the second one this morning. It seems most of the recipes I talk about have been for suppers or desserts. This morning I decided to try out a new breakfast recipe. Trevor and I love a big breakfast on Sunday mornings. I know this isn't Sunday, but it's still the weekend right? And besides I was in the 'trying something new' kind of mood!!! Not to mention, if I'm to have a Kitchen Day tomorrow I'm going to be up to my eyeballs in pots and pans anyway!! :)

This morning I tried out a FABULOUS new omelet. I use to make omelets all the time but for a long while now I found myself getting tired of them or too heavy. I've always made my omelets using 3 eggs and 3 Tbsp of milk!! Too heavy! This recipe was for 3 eggs and 1 Tbsp of milk. It made a HUGE difference. Not to mention the flavours combined in the ingredients were out of this world! I thought I would share it with you!

Pesto Feta Omelet (from the Company's Company Series. This book is all on eggs)




1 tsp Olive Oil
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup sliced fresh white mushrooms
2 tsp Basil pesto
3 large eggs
1 Tbsp milk
pepper, sprinkle
1 tsp hard margarine
1 small roma (plum) tomato, sliced
2 Tbsp Crumbled Feta cheese

Heat cooking oil in non-stick medium 9 1/2 inch frying pan on medium heat. Add onion. Cook for 5-10 minutes, stirring often, until softened.

Add mushrooms. Cook for 2-3 minutes until lightly browned. Remove to small bowl.

Add pesto to mushroom mixture. Stir until well combined. Set aside.

Beat eggs, milk and pepper with whisk in medium bowl until smooth.

Melt margarine in same frying pan on medium. Pour egg mixture into frying pan. Reduce heat to medium-low. When starting to set at outside edge, tilt pan and gently lift cooked egg with spatula, easing around pan from outside edge in. Allow uncooked egg to flow onto bottom of pan. Repeat, working around pan, until egg is softly set. Scatter mushroom mixture over 1/2 of omelet.

Layer tomato slices over mushroom mixture. Scatter feta cheese over tomato. Fold other 1/2 of omelet over feta cheese. Cover. Cook for 2-4 minutes until heated through. Makes 1 omelet.

I will DEFINETELY be making this one again!

It is a cold but sunny day today here in St. John's. It is just after 12 noon here. I think I should haul my butt away from the computer, get out of my nice warm flannel pjs, grab a shower and get out and get some fresh air and run some errands. I want to go to Michaels and Kent today as well as the grocery store.

Til Next Time!!!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Keeping Busy and Creative

I have been working away on a number of things the last few days. Thursday and Friday night I got a good portion of a baby's quilt put together. A good friend of mine is about 1 to 2 weeks further along in her pregnancy and she is having a little girl. I decided to make a baby's quilt for her upcoming shower.





Little did I know til the day after that Heidi (a new blogger I have been reading about) has a "Friday Night Sew In"! Well I didn't know at the time, but I told her after the fact that I got in a bit of work myself on a project I wanted to do and am interested in tagging along in future "Friday Night Sew In" sessions!

Along with the quilt I also put a little more work into some Christmas Santa Placemats I started before Christmas but never finished. Last night I got the red button noses and the eyes in place. I also started marking the placemats for machine quilting. I might tackle those tomorrow night. (hmmm I tried to add the photos to this post, but it seems my icon to add photos is being a bit stubborn and won't let me add more photos... grrrr.. next time folks)!!

Saturday night we invited a couple of our friends over for an evening of relaxing. We broke out the Wii game console and played a 4 player Mario game! I was the lucky one to keep dying all the time!! LOL I was never very good at video games but I had fun all the same!





Sunday my friend Crystal came over and we scrapbooked. We both have so much we want to scrap and we both needed some encouragement to get at it. We decided one Sunday a month we would meet up and spend the day and evening scrapping. Right now I am working on a "Book About Me" Album. Mum gave me my family album some years ago and over the last couple of years I started little by little to scrap some of the memories. I have many many pages to do, but I'm enjoying looking back on all the old photos of me as a little girl.

Before Christmas Crystal and I started going to Michael's Craft Store as well as a local private scrapbooking store to stock up on more papers and embellishments. I picked up a really nice album I want to scrap for my little boy. I can't WAIT to start his album! I also picked up some extra clear rubber stamps, ink, water colour pencils and other cute embellishments! We also plan to work on different greeting cards throughout the year too!





Well tonight it's laundry night and tidying/organizing/gutting out more STUFF from the future nursery. No sewing for me tonight :( I best get back to it!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea