Weekend Update

Hello! I thought I'd give ya'll a little update on my weekend. It's been quite wonderful so far...too bad it won't last longer. I went out to dinner on Friday night with a friend, her kids, and a few other ladies with their kids. It was one of the most stressful dinners I've ever been to. We had 7 children there all told, with the youngest being a baby and the oldest being about 6 or so. Four boys, three girls. Needless to say, it was a bit of a headache. We were in a back corner of the restaurant, but those kids would not listen for anything. Nobody got dessert that night. I think the restaurant, and everybody there, was glad to see us go.

Saturday, I went to a Pampered Chef party. I was only allowed to spend the cash I already had in my wallet, which was a whopping $15. I got two spice rubs...that mandoline slicer was calling my name, though. SO awesome. I always cut myself when I try to use my grater's mandoline side. Last time, I got my knuckle and it took almost a month to finish healing. Something to save up for, I guess!

I spent all of the rest of my day grocery shopping and sewing. I made this Potato soup for dinner, and it was amazing. I altered the recipe a bit, though. I used more of the celery, onion, and potato - I used the whole onion, I think either 3 or 4 stalks of celery, and 3 potatoes. Then, before I added the cream at the end, I added some baby spinach leaves and let them get all wilted. It was awesome! My bacon was a little chewy, though, because I tried using too small of a pot. If you have a large saucepan (a few inches high but with a very large bottom), use that for this soup. That recipe was enough for me to have one bowl plus seconds for two meals.

Sunday morning, I got up and made two batches of my favorite cookies. We were having a potluck lunch after church. Once those were made and baking, I put together some beef stew in the crock pot. I wasn't planning on eating it tonight, since I wanted to finish the soup, but I wanted to have it done for tomorrow night. I kind of ad libbed on the recipe, so I'll have to let you know how it tastes! I also made bread, and this time, the loaves didn't stick to the pan. Picture perfect! I'm thinking about trying to make whole wheat bread, but am kind of reluctant to change. I love this recipe for its simplicity, so does anyone have any advice?

On the sewing front, I ordered the backing for my mom's and my mother in law's quilt. They're actually the same backing, a batik that was on sale at Hancock's of Paducah. I felt really bad for buying it though, because I had to get a ton (pieced back) and even on sale it was expensive. 10 yards of a fabric that's priced at almost $10 a yard...yeah. I had my husband's permission, though, so I bought it. This is the backing:

I swoon over batiks, so this was right up my alley. Hooray! I'm now about 2/3 done with the quilting on Pop-Pop's quilt. I'm so excited because this means that it'll be done with plenty of time to enter it in the Project Modern Challenge!

In other news, I got to see Pop-Pop today. I was Skyping with my mom, and my dad was picking him up from the Assisted Living Center for Sunday lunch at my parents' house. We stayed on long enough so I could see him and he's looking great. He's looking much better than the last time I saw him. The Assisted Living Center is definitely taking good care of him. If nothing else, the food has made a big difference. He hated cooking for himself, so having food prepared for him is a huge thing. My dad got him to talk a little bit about when he was in WWII, which I always love hearing about. I can't wait to have this quilt for him. He hates the cold, and it's about to be winter so it'll be just in time. He seriously is a bigger baby about cold than my husband (I love you, honey!), who's from Texas. He was wearing his jacket, zipped all of the way up, at my parent's house today.

My husband today was saying that I'm perfect. Why am I perfect? Because I can make yummy food (like beef stew and homemade bread and cookies and potato soup) and I can sew and make quilts for people AND...I'm a nerd. I'm a nerd because when he sends me links like this one I start thinking of what else I would have to put with it to have the right outfit (my black leggings and my Rocket Dogs shoes). And when I can't figure out what movie to watch, I watch our Special Extended Edition of the Lord of the Rings movies. And then laugh at them. Because quotes like "Are all these children yours? Gracious, you've been productive" just make me laugh. Besides, when Agent Smith from the "Matrix" movies comes out with long hair and elf ears and says "Welcome to Rivendell" you just can't help but mentally a "Mister Anderson" to the end of it. And then, because you really can't talk about Lord of the Rings without showing this, here's one of my favorite little songs made from bits of the LOTR movies:



Now whenever you see the movies, you'll remember these little bits of the movies and will laugh at them. I love this video...seriously!

I'm supposed to get the first snow of the year this week. I don't know if I'll see it, since my office is in the basement, but I hope I do. There's something magical about the first time it snows. But if it snows daily until spring, I might start having problems. We'll see!

Anyways, just out of curiosity - what did you get done this weekend, sewing or otherwise? I'd love to see some comments about it!