Halloween!

I finished my daughter's Halloween costume two weeks early!

She wanted to be a cowgirl, but I discouraged her because that would not be very DIY and I didn't want to buy her cowboy boots she would never wear again. Boots like that are not easily found up here in the upper midwest..

So here she is as an ice cream cone:

The pattern was in the Halloween 2010 Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications magazine. LINK. The pattern was provided in the print version, and I guess they were the correct shapes, but you have to enlarge them at a copier to use them. The instructions were AWFUL. I mean really really awful. I did one basic version based on their recommended pattern enlargements and it would maybe fit a 3 year old child. I fiddled with it and just made really large pieces and got it to fit my 10-year old.

Other BHG publications are really good with instructions. I especially like the seasonal Quilts and More, but this was really bad. Basically it says, "Sew up the parts, attach the cherry to a headband... " and that is pretty much it. I am sort of experienced with these things, so as you can see, I figured it out. She loves it and it may be one of my most favorite of all the Halloween costumes I've made.

Here her cherry is a bit askew:

Felt is really inexpensive and easy to work with. I had polyfil, sweatshirt, and pom poms already, so the cost of this costume was about $12. Happy Halloween!

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's getting close to mealtime around here! We are just waiting for the rest of the family to arrive.



I resurrect my Grandma Nelson's favorite Bob White dishes for this special holiday. For years and years this was the holiday we spent in Iowa visiting our lovely relatives. Actually, for a long time as a child I thought only old people lived in Iowa and the kids I saw were just visiting like me.



Roasting the turkey in a bag is a great method as is having one of those thermometers you can read from the countertop. Our turkey is now resting peacefully in the kitchen awaiting the carving and gravy prep.



Enjoy this wonderful holiday!

Halloween: The Aftermath

It was cold here! My son has decided that he is too old to trick-or-treat, so he stayed in and handled the door while we watched a "scary" movie. (Poltergeist made him jump a couple times, but he declares he wasn't scared t all.)


Lots of people were out-of-town, and we live on the side of the street that gets less trick-or-treaters. I have never ever had an impolite kid come to the door. My husband took my daughter around and it seems she knows every kid in the neighborhood. She's our little extrovert in an introverted family! I let her design our doorway display. Her costume is a vampire bat styled after one of her stuffed toys. At the last minute I made the ears from some polar fleece so that she could have her chilly ears covered.
These are my stand-by costumes for my husband and me. One year my husband was a skeleton with our son. I am a candy corn, but some kids think I am a fried egg. People totally laugh at me, but I think it is fun! I got the most laughs when I went as a giant duck. That costume has deteriorated, unfortunately.

We are rationing our candy! Hope your Halloween was a fun one!

Flirty Taco Chips

These are the flirty taco chips I stitched up for ritapizza in our Tea Towel Tour on Craftster. This is a pattern by Jacque Davis that she made available free in the Hoop Love group on Flickr. Get it HERE.



They are bathing in guacamole. I decided that if Rita doesn't like guacamole, then it is spinach dip. Rita reports that she does like guacamole so all is good! I used chain stitch throughout, except on the eyes and boys' faces. The chain stitch gives the ladies puffed up collagen lips which I like (in stitching, not in real life..)

Here in Chicagoland we have the best, most delicious corn chips ever in the history of taco chips. If you eat Tostitos, I am sorry for you. These are in every store in Chicagoland in big displays. They are so fresh they taste like they are right out of the fryer. They only have four ingredients: corn, lime, corn oil, and salt. They are made locally by El Ranchero. We call them "Chips-in-a-Green-Bag" at our house. I don't know if other people call them that, but it seems like when I say that everyone around here knows exactly the chips I refer to.


Interestingly, their price seems to fluctuate with the price of corn, but they are always a better price than commercial brands. My son is one of those kids who really likes very crunchy snacks. If we don't have green apples and Chips-in-a-Green-Bag in the house, I better get to the store quick!

Mothers Day

I'm remembering my sweet, gentle Grandma McKee today. In this photo, it is the mid 1930's and she is holding her first baby, my Uncle Curtis.

She always had a beautiful project in her hands. When they stayed with us in the summer and over the Christmas holiday, she would always be making beautiful thread crochet motifs that she would assemble into heirloom tablecloths for all her grand daughters and grand nieces.

Here she is with my beautiful Aunt Nancy who sadly passed away this year.

She made cross stitched quilts like this one for all of her adult children. This one was Aunt Nancy's. I am grateful to the family who saw to it that I would receive it. She made a red version of this for my Mom and Dad. This blue one is dated 1965.

I feel a strong connection to both of my grandmothers. Their personalities could not have been more different, but they had the same hobbies which I find that I share. My Grandma N favored sewing and quilting and crafted with her girlfriends for sales and church bazaars. Grandma McK was a content and kind spirit. She stitched in her younger years, but I only remember the thread crochet. Several family members have handmade wool braided rugs that she made with scraps. Her afghans were used and loved.

Gram passed away shortly after Mothers Day about 12 years ago after a long, devastating decline from Alzheimers Disease. Even in the worst stages of her illness, she was kind, loving and sweet, especially to my Grandfather.

Happy Mothers Day to you all. I hope you take this day to remember sweet times with the matriarchs in your families.

Birthday Berry Pie

Last Saturday my son turned 12. He has never been a big cake fan so he asked that I make him a triple berry birthday pie instead. Sure! I had plenty of pie crust dough leftover so I made these little cinnamon crisp cookies. They were yummy too. As you can see, I like a rustic casual style with my baked goods.

We allowed our son to buy his own Xbox last year. It took him ages to save up the money but he finally got his dream gaming system and is just like most boys this age.. he is always wanting to play his video games. I understand this complusion as I have been addicted to Mario and Zelda games on our Nintendo.

Before we opened gifts, I took some pictures. Sam was really nervous that he wouldn't get his dream game and the tension is all over his face here when he is trying to smile. He also has trouble holding his pose and holding his eye contact with the camera. Maybe you can't see it, but this face is saying, "I hope this birthday goes exactly as I have imagined it.":

But dreams do come true! He got his dream game and all is well!

It is wonderfully rewarding to see our children grow up! I am so proud to have such a hardworking, smart, and funny young man in my life. Only one more year until he is a teenager! Happy Birthday, Sam!

The Day After

We are in a sleepy sugar meltdown around here. It turns out that most of our neighbors give out chocolate candy, so my kid's haul from yesterday is really tempting me. I never go for the Skittles, Starburst, and Nerds, it's all about Kit-Kats, Reese's, and Butterfinger for me.

It was a really warm evening so my daughter was able to trick or treat in her sandals. this is amazing because on Monday we had snow flurries here. She was a mouse with red lipstick and glitter makeup. We got my son a funny clip on mustache at the costume store and he thought of going as Burt Reynolds, but decided to be a predatory home mortgage lender instead. He told homeowners in our neighborhood, "Give me candy or I'll take away your house!" Actually, I don't think he really said that at all the houses...



I had a yummy chicken pot pie cooking during the trick-or-treat hours and some of the later kids at the door really were begging me for the chicken soup instead of sugary treats because the house was smelling savory and delicious.

Another 40th Birthday!

Happy Birthday Blair!



Today is the day my brother turns 40 and for just about 2 weeks we are the same age. My whole family (Mom, Dad, Brother) has our birthdays in the same 2 week period, so we always look forward to our get-together for Family Birthday Weekend. That's me sitting quietly back on the lounge chair and he's the little guy in front ready to entertain.

I did not make anything handmade for my brother's milestone birthday. Have you heard me say before that crafting for men is very hard for me? To me it can be a little bit like being trapped in hell. Even so, in the past I've given him many things. When we were teenagers I stenciled a big Christmas goose on his underpants and he wore those every holiday for many years. At least he told me he did, I didn't actually see them. When he was married I made him and his wife a new bed-sized quilt that I actually completely hand quilted. One day I'll get a photo of that as it predates the digital era. It was THIS pattern.

Brother and I grew up very close. He is extroverted to the extreme and I am less so. He is very funny and was a terrific youth minister at a very large Presbyterian church until he changed careers to have more time for his family. We were involved in the same high school activities including stage crew, band, Amigos, and the church youth group. We have many of the same long term friends from those days and even spent some time as roommates at the college we attended together.

Here's a more current photo of us. It's an unflattering angle of me and a little bit blurry. Practically every other digital photo I have of him he's hamming it up in some silly way.

Have a great day, Blair! Enjoy the 40's! It's a great age!

Fridays at the Movies

Yes, we already saw HSM3. That clip is from the HSM2 which played on tv this summer. This sequel was good, although Troy and Gabriella are a bit too much for my taste. I like the Sharpay character (movies like this need a fun villain) and she was pretty scarce this go around of HSM. The audience in our theater squealed at the opening shot of Zac Efron and again later on when he took off his shirt. Our cineplex canceled the showing of whatever it was that was supposed to be playing in one of the theaters and filled it up with overflow ticket holders for HSM so I predict this will get a #1 showing when the receipts are tallied at the end of the weekend.

The place was awash is squealing little girls. Our poor son was dragged along and declared it the worst thing he's ever seen and insists that we owe him a movie. Twice they "punished" a character by making him go paint sets and hang lights which was exactly what I used to do in theater in high school. On the crew, we worked 5 days a week for several hours after school and all day long every Saturday. I'm pretty sure we had way more fun backstage, but nevermind about that.

I love it that musicals are making a comeback. They really are fun. This one isn't nearly as fantastic as Mamma Mia, but we had a good time. It did make me long to see Grease again. That was my favorite as a kid.

I love the week of Halloween because the movie channels show all kinds of vintage horror. If we had TiVo I would really be in b-movie horror heaven. I don't like to see scary films in the theater, because they are too strong. Actually I don't really want to see any horror films that date much later than about 1980. I like them better if it is all sort of stylized and unreal or very dated. A couple years ago I saw Suspiria on IFC. That one boasts what is probably the creepiest theme music ever. I was going to embed a videoclip, but the ones I found were kind of gory for a crafty blog. Some of you might have preferred to watch that than High School Musical 2, but I'll let you do your own You Tube search.

Here are some not at all scary ghost pins I made that same year I saw Suspiria. They are not inspired by the movie:

Back To School

Hooray! The kids had to carry all their supplies to school on the first day. My daughter had too much to fit into her backpack. Her irritating school supply requirement was 60 sharpened #2 pencils. Only certain brands are allowed.


My son was saying, "MOM! Stop! you are embarrassing me! You better not follow me to the bus stop!" I didn't. He couldn't figure out why paper towels were necessary for his school supplies. Budget cuts I guess.


I guess this means I really have to get to all those things I've been planning on doing once they go to school all day. Uh... what were those things again? Tomorrow I'm going to an early showing of Hamlet 2 at the movie theater.

Cabin Weekend '08

Sadly, the summer is waning. We just returned from our favorite annual summer weekend with old high school and childhood friends at a lakeside cabin in Wisconsin. We came home to the kid's teacher assignments for the next year so it's inevitable that school starts again really soon.

Boy, was it a fun time! We've been getting together this way since long before they invented water noodles. It was the first Cabin Weekend in many years that all 22 of us were able to come for most of the weekend. I'm not sure which was more delicious, Martin's Pie Night or John's Carne Asada Night. Lisa also throws together awesome dishes from whatever is left in the fridge.


Thanks, Rick! Can we come for a month next summer?

RIP Isaac Hayes

Sadly, Chicago's own Bernie Mac passed away this weekend, but we were really bummed in our house about losing Isaac Hayes. Our family got hooked on Memphis soul music when we took a family weekend trip there a couple winters ago. My son wrote a report on Memphis Soul for his 5th grade music class and got an A+. He wanted to sample his favorite song, "Theme from Shaft" but decided it wasn't "school appropriate" ("Who is the black private dick who's a sex machine to all the chicks? Shaft!") Son declared Isaac Hayes' gold plated, fur lined, peacock blue stretch Cadillac on display at Stax Records, "the coolest car ever."(Daughter's reaction, "Mom? What does Superfly mean?")

Here's Sam and Dave performing Soul Man, written by Hayes when he was a studio musician at Stax. Son did sample this for his school report:


Seriously, everyone should take their kids to Memphis. We had a blast. We went to the Civil Rights Museum (excellent, but an emotional and difficult history to share with our children); toured 2 very famous recording studios: Stax and Sun records; visited the Smithsonian Rock and Soul museum; saw Elvis' digs at Graceland; experienced the birthplace of the Blues on Beale Street; ate at the delicious historic Fourway Restaurant where Dr. MLKing, Jr. had his last meal in Memphis (not a great neighborhood, but don't be nervous. The proprietors were friendly and the soul food was terrific.)

Another winter, we gotaway to Nashville and found it to be very bland. The economy is better in Nashville, so the city had far less seedy areas, but the country music just didn't have the same allure for us as the rock, blues and soul of Memphis. We like going to cities and seeing social and political history, but it was hard to find any of this in Nashville, except that one of our Presidental homes is there and that was a great tour.

Gadzooks, I ramble! My grammar gets worse and worse. I did find my camera and I finished that sailboat quilt. Stay tuned!

Amish Museum Quilts

Gah! Where is my camera?! I've been working on a baby quilt with really cute sailboat fabric. I ran into some complications, and I'd love to show you my progress, but my camera has gone into hiding somewhere.

Yesterday the kids and I did a field trip to Chicago. We stopped at a cupcake place that was very good, but I like to bake and those cupcakes weren't really any better than the ones I make except that they use real buttercream and I do powdered sugar with much less butter for my icing... We planned to go to the Field Museum of Natural History. Unfortunately, we were running so late after a couple side trips that we just walked Michigan Avenue instead. I was weak and let each child pick out something from a store. Daughter got a cute set of stuff from American Girl Place. Did you know that they have a new "Historical" doll from the 1970's? That's how they get you over there... I wasn't the only 40 something mom at the display saying, "I used to have that when I was a kid!" Son could not get out of American Girl Place fast enough so we went to the Lego store and he picked out a set of basic pieces and people. This was an excellent purchase because the kids have been playing Legos all day long with no arguing and no complaining about there being nothing to eat in the house.

I went back into my photo files and found some Amish/Mennonite quilts I meant to share. This first one was on display at the Denver Museum of Art. I love the colors here. I usually want to pair up my blues with yellows or orange, but this inspires me to try to tone down my color choices.


This one was on display at a little museum in Shipshewana, Indiana. The museum explained all the history and theology of the Anabaptists and how the Amish and Mennonites are different. I won't go into it (martyrs are very important), but it was a very good little museum. Here again is the tame color palate, but that sparkle of red and pink are perfectly placed. This one is my favorite:


Lastly, this quilt was also on display at the same little museum. It pulsates with color. I've seen patterns for this sort of star (is it the Lone Star?) and it doesn't look that difficult, but those diamond shapes and their perfect points intimidate me:


Now.. where could that camera possibly be?

Back to sewing!

My daughter and I made this receiving blanket for our friends' new baby. She picked out coordinating flannel and quilter's cotton. I trimmed them up into matching squares and rounded up the ends. We stitched on a packaged double fold binding and voila! Easy blanket!



I really need a new cover for that ironing board.... She used her new Hello Kitty Sewing Machine. It works great! It's really lightweight and easy to use. I prefer my high end Husqvarna Viking, but this would be a great machine for anyone to have to bring to classes and such.

Daughter is still distracted when sewing and doesn't seem to notice that I'm guiding the fabric most of the time. We also made Hanna Montana/High School Musical matching pillows for her and her friend. I normally refuse to buy things with licensed characters on them (Hello Kitty and other Japanese Cute are notable exceptions), but she was so excited, I gave in. I'm doing all the careful cutting and pinning for her so she doesn't get too frustrated. I find that sewing is easy once you get everything cut correctly. I want so much for her to enjoy sewing like I do.


In case my son feels left out of the blog, here he is at the Alluvial Fan at the RMNP. This is a spot where you can see the extensive damage done when a dam with faulty caulking burst in 1982 and flooded the valley below including Estes Park, CO. He thought this was the coolest feature we observed all week. As a teenager, I hiked all the way to the top where the lake is above the tree line. Son things this cool waterfall is way better than some boring lake anyway. It so happens that we have a connection to that awful flood. Our relative was a prominent citizen in Loveland, Colorado and was the president of the Water Board when the flood occurred. My dad says he always felt it was some sort of sabotage, but he felt terrible about what happened until the end of his life..

I'll take the mountains over the beach any day

We're back! We had a fantastic vacation at the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. We stay at the YMCA of the Rockies. We highly recommend the Y-camp because of the terrific rates, facilities, children's and family activities, and the location surrounded on 3 sides by National Park. This is an old photo I took during our last visit 3 years ago from above the YMCA camp, looking down at their grounds. It doesn't show the spectacular snow capped mountain views, because those shots are all still trapped in my camera.

We dream of taking this vacation every year, but are only able to do it every 3 years or so. I even had the good fortune of being a staff member at the Estes Park YMCA during a college summer break in 1987. I was a preschooler day camp counselor and I only earned a little over a dollar an hour, but it was one of my most memorable summers. This trip we took a couple extra days to acclimate to the altitude in Denver and Boulder. This helped a lot and although we all had strange dreams and disrupted sleeps, we adjusted pretty well. My husband and I hike slow and steady while I label rock formations (pegmatite! biotite schist! silver plume granite exfoliation dome!), and look up birds and wildflowers in the field guides I carry along.

Now I'm faced with an empty refrigerator, laundry, children with no more planned summer activities and steamy midwestern weather. On the other hand, it is good to be back in my own bed with my own pillows!

Summer Fun

Independence day marks the halfway point of the summer. Yipes! We don't have any plans at all of any sort this weekend. I think we'll try to get some mulch put into the flower beds and catch some fireworks somewhere. I feel like making apple pie too. The weather here is supposed to be totally perfect with highs in the mid-70's. I wish we were going camping. We tried to reserve a campsite somewhere not far away, but everything was booked. Don't feel bad for us. We like open weekends like this. My husband in particular needs to chill out and rest on holidays.

We'll try to picnic somewhere instead. This is really such a fun holiday. I love how everyone of all ages and incomes, even the disillusioned teenagers, come out for the fireworks shows everywhere. When I was a teenager , we often went to downtown Chicago for the Taste of Chicago and the big fireworks show over Lake Michigan. Ahh the follies of youth. Now it is so crowded down there, I wouldn't ever dream of attending. It was crowded back then too, but we didn't really care.



This was a couple of years ago, but it is one of my favorite summer pics of the kids. Have a great weekend!

Birthday Bunting

Happy Birthday to Cutie Girl!



It was yesterday and we celebrated by making a chocolate layer cake with ice cream and berry sauce. She likes to frost her own cake and she has a favorite set of sprinkles to decorate with:



I spent all day making her a last minute decoration This is a progress pic of her bunting (or is this a banner..?) I used the acrylic dyed trim I made a few weeks ago.



I was thinking of putting her name across the bunting, but I ran out of time and now I can use it for other colorful occasions. She came home from summer camp yesterday and dramatically fell on the floor declaring it "GREAT!" but then she asked why it didn't say "Happy Birthday, Emma" Not enough time!


I actually need to do another long one so that they criss-cross our living/dining room area. My son wants one too and I think I'll do a more masculine version with batiks and no cutesy trims. This is a great stash buster project and I think it would look really cute with various sized rectangles. My rectangles are 6 inches by 7 inches not including the seam allowance. You can also do one the traditional way with pennant shaped triangles. The top here is double fold bias tape that came in a package. I used 3 packages for this length of bunting. The rectangles are spaced approximately 3 inches apart, but I didn't worry about accuracy because this is supposed to be playful!

I have a bag of old party decorations from past themed birthdays and the kids like to put them up when they celebrate, so there is an ecclectic mix of stars, rainbows, and butterflies in our birthday house.

We had a fun, simple family celebration for her birthday. The 4 of us went bowling and had pizza. I promised her a kid party later in the summer. I wonder if she'll forget about that promise. The summer is so busy this year...

Back to the Real World

We are back from our trip. It was lovely, although stormy mid-week. It never occurred to us that the storms were devastating to others in our region of the USA. We are emerging from our cocoon of isolation from all media sources to terrible news of flooding in the midwest. My uncle has lost his home to the flooding in Waterloo, Iowa and has applied for FEMA assistance. Our first clue that something big was going on was that the interstate was closed around Portage, Wisconsin due to flooding and we were trapped on the highway for about 4 hours while they rerouted the traffic in that area. I suppose you saw THIS VIDEO of Lake Delton near the Wisconsin Dells bursting it's banks. We often go to that area for getaway weekends with our children. Our home in northern Illinois is safe and dry, but we are keeping our extended family in Iowa in our prayers.

In regularly scheduled crafting news, my article about Clover Bias Tape Makers ran last week at Craft Critique. I used the opportunity to trim a tea towel with some of the jelly roll strips I received recently as a gift.

Just the Staycation We Needed

We did a "staycation" for Memorial Day Weekend. We always do this because everywhere on this kickoff-to-summer weekend is crowded. We always wish we'd planned a camping trip, but the campsites we favor are booked really early. My husband was really happy that the lawnmower was broken so he could delay his only weekend chore.

Destructive tornadoes struck uncomfortably close to my cousin and his family out in rural Iowa. Thankfully they are okay, but the storm was frightening for them.

This was the weekend scene at our house:




Happy Summer!

New Quilt and Camping

I'm working on a new quilt. I got these fabrics at the big Chicago International Quilt Festival last weekend. The fabrics were from this vendor:

It's for Quilting, Etc. from Rockford, IL. I'm making the quilt on the right, but I put in my own pink and yellow floral for the large yellow in the half square triangle blocks in the photo. The quilt will be graphic, casual and funky. I hope to send it out for quilting so that I'll actually be able to use it as a blanket.

And in other news, I did go camping with the Boy Scouts and it was fun. The boys and dads were really great, but I was pleased that my friend's son was feeling better, so I wasn't the only woman. We went to Devil's Lake State Park in Wisconsin, near the Wisconsin Dells. The weather was perfect too, although it was pretty muddy in most places. I've decided that people who enjoy camping and nature hiking are my kind of people. Sports, shopping, and fitness folks are harder for me to relate to, so Scouting is the perfect activity for our family. Unfortunately, the showers at the campground weren't turned on yet and I forgot my hairbrush, so by the last day, Karen and I were emphasizing our "inner beauty". Not that anyone cared. Next month the camp out is a biking thing where they cycle to the locations and camp overnight. We are definitely not doing that one.

My husband had a great time alone with our daughter. They went to the movies and their favorite Italian restaurant for tomato soup. He took her to the beach at Lake Michigan for a long afternoon walk. We both agree that it is fun to have time alone with the kids separately.