Soup & Sewing

Since I'm trying to be a little more thrifty (and I'm already pretty darn thrifty) I thought I'd try my hand at making my own chicken broth. We often buy the seasoned rotisserie chickens at Sam's Club - they are so good and so CHEAP! (less than 5 dollars). After most of this one was eaten, I picked off the leftover meat and put the carcass (isn't that a lovely word?) in a pot full of water with an onion (chopped in half, not peeled) a couple of cloves of garlic (again, chopped but not peeled), a few stalks of celery and a couple of carrots. I didn't season it because the chicken skin was already liberally seasoned. Then I let it simmer for between 5-6 hours, occasionally skimming the top.

I strained it through a fine mesh strainer (we call it our fencing mask, like Nigella) and then stuck it in the fridge. The next morning, I scooped the layer of fat off the top, although surprisingly there really wasn't much fat there. The broth was SUPER rich, so I used it in a 1:1 ratio with water, added the shredded chicken, a few carrots, an onion, celery, and garlic and let it simmer for a couple of hours. Right before we ate it I added some whole wheat organic egg noodles from our local bulk Amish food store. It was quite delicious, if I do say so myself! And the kids actually ate it.

On the sewing front, I finally finished my friend Renetta's table runner. I just made some improvisational log cabins and surrounded them with linen. Her only request was that it be framed with AMH's Garden Party polka dot. I'm pleased with how it turned out, especially considering it was my first real attempt at free-motion quilting. I'm sure it will get nice and puckery after its first wash.

Here's a litte detail of the quilting - I LOVE that mustard-colored thread and use it every chance I get.

Sorry about the dreary pictures - it was a dreary day.

Enjoy your Thursday - it's almost the weekend!! As Dawson would say, "Yay! Wow! Woo hoo!"

Like I need one more thing to do

I couldn't help myself. I signed up for Creative Kismet's Birds of Change exchange. I have been really wanting to make some sweet birdies to hang around the house and this is my motivation now! The birds are due by the 17th, so this will be a quick exchange. I have a few ideas floating around and my goal is to get started on them later this week.

Off to decorate a Barbie cake now - so far today I've baked a cake, made buttercream frosting, The Lady's Cheesy Mac (yum!) and cleaned windows and a bathroom. Since we're just having a family party I don't feel the pressure that I would if we were having a ton of people over. So that's a good thing, I guess.

Have a good Monday afternoon - have you recovered from the holidays yet??

My Resolution

My bloggy resolution, that is. I am going to post more in 2009. Here's my problem - I feel the need to wait to post until I have an enormous amount of pictures and things to share and a perfectly written post to go with it. That (obviously) doesn't happen much. So this year I'm going to just throw it out there as it comes - or as I download my pictures. :) Does anyone else have trouble finding time to download, edit, and then upload pictures? It seem like such a process that I hardly ever sit down and do it.

So did you guys have a wonderful Christmas? We absolutely did - the kids are getting to a great age for opening gifts and they had a BLAST. It was so fun to watch. I didn't make them many gifts this year, as I had planned, but that's okay - they didn't notice!

Here's a little covered notebook that I made for my hairstylist, Erica. We have pretty much the exact same taste when it comes to decorating, and she is just the sweetest thing. She had two antique quilts (cutter quilts) that she wasn't going to use so she gave them to me! This was my Christmas gift to her - it's one of the Dresden Plates from the quilt! I used my trusty seam ripper to take it off of the old quilt and also pulled out all of the old batting. I ironed the seams under and then machine-appliqued it onto linen. I am in LOVE with this little book - I need to make myself one soon.

Delaney's birthday is on Monday and I think we're having her party on Saturday. I need to do some serious planning this week - she wants a Barbie Diamond Castle cake. Whoa.

Holy Night

Here it is, 10:30 on Christmas Eve, and I'm ready for tomorrow. I think this may be the earliest ever. I thought I'd share some of my Christmas decorations with you before I take them down...



Luke 2:11
"Today in the town of David
a Savior has been born to you:
he is Christ the Lord."



Luke 2:8:9
And there were shepherds out in the field,
keeping watch by night.
And an angel of the Lord appeared to them,
and the glory of the Lord shone around them.

Matthew 1:21
"She shall bring forth a son,
and thou shall call His name Jesus;
for He shall save His people from their sins."

Matthew 1:23
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

Luke 1:14
And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth

Matthew 2:2
"We have seen His star in the East,
and have come to worship Him."

Philippians 2:9
"Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place
and gave Him the name that is above every name."

Psalm 72:11
All kings shall pay Him homage,
all nations shall serve Him.

Luke 2:13
And suddenly there was the angel,
a multitude of the heavenly host,
praising God and saying:
"Glory to God in the highest."

John 3:16
For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish but have everlasting life.

Merry Christmas, friends.

Quilt Giveaway!

No, not by me. Did that get your attention, though?!

Elizabeth at Pigtails & Snails is giving an absolutely gorgeous quilt away - go look for yourself. And I'm going to win it! Posting this on my blog gives me an extra 5 entries and the little banner over in my sidebar adds another 5. I'm not proud! Can I start another blog just to post there and get 10 more entries?!?

Now I'm just hoping she'll write up a pattern so we can make ourselves one too!

Just a few things

On my mind today...

I am going to be nice to telemarketers. They have such a crap job and I can't imagine that my shortness with them makes their job or day any easier. Their phone calls irritate me but they're just trying to feed their families, right?

I LOVE FALL.

We are almost through our second batch of apple butter. And the 19 pounds of strawberries that we turned into jam is gone. Long gone. We are some toast and jam junkies in this house.

I'll be sad when our garden is empty. It's so much fun to take the kids out every day to see what is ready to be picked.

I finally got my sewing groove back. It feels good.

Thank goodness Monday is a holiday - I am so thankful to have a long weekend to look forward to.

I had an abundance of red peppers so I diced/froze some of them and then roasted/canned the rest. YUM.

What's on your mind this lovely Friday afternoon?

Let's catch up!

There are so many things I want to share with you! I have been on an unintentional blog hiatus but I'd really like to get into a good blogging rhythm this fall.


We celebrated our 7 year anniversary by going to the Country Living Fair in Columbus, OH a couple of weeks ago. It was fantastic. We went last year too but it was SO super crowded - the venue was beautiful but just not big enough. It was held at the Ohio Village this year and let me tell you, it was the coolest place. It felt like we had stepped back in time. AND, I got a super cool show poster and got it autographed by the editor of Country Living, Nancy Soriano.



My far and away favorite booth at the fair was the Earth Angels tent. I lost count of the thousands of imaginary dollars I spent there. It was jaw-dropping, gorgeous, funky, incredible ART. I was so inspired and I walked through there a few times. I ended up bringing home an awesome penny rug (sort of) framed in barn wood. I'm in the process of putting up fall decorations so I'll post a pic as soon as it gets hung up. It's awesome.

I had spotted this pattern on Country Threads' website and hoped that they would have it at the Fair and sure enough, they did! I can just see it in solid Kona cottons with a coordinating print back. And the nice gals there even let me practice on the sample punchneedle! It was awesome (I know, everything was awesome). But it really was! It was so easy - I am definitely putting it on my Christmas list. (I also grabbed this Daisy Kingdom pattern to make Delaney a fall jacket.)



My good-ness order came last week too....I am in fabric heaven right now. And would you believe I found this gingham at Joanns?!?



I had stocked up on velvet ribbon at McMaster & Storm at the fair last year and I was hoping they would have some great ribbon again this year. Man, did they! I lost count at 20 yards. It is delicious velvet ric rac. Someday I dream of going to their actual store.