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Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Orange

I took these photos on my phone about a week ago coming home from seminary. Can you believe all the gorgeousness at 6:30 a.m?  It just filled the sky and I LOVED it! 

Orange

This just may be my favorite accessory color. I'm working on a quilt now with some orange. I have pops of orange in my living room, bedroom and family room. 
It also is one of my son's high school colors and since we're going to tennis multiple times per week, just looking for the orange shirts makes me happy. It also reminds me of both my boys. When BigBuddy was four he wanted to wear his orange shirt every day. After a week of that, I bought four more orange shirts for cheap and pretty much every photo of him except for on Sundays, that year, he's wearing orange. Now I recently bought some fabric for LittleBuddy's bed quilt and he said, can you add orange to that? Actually I can, and it will look fabulous with all the colors in the layer cake I got on sale. Yeah!

I guess its that time of year. Orange is everywhere, and right now, it just makes me happy.



Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Halloween Table Topper

I know it would be better to actually see this on a table, but it photographs better against my sofa. . . .
I finished this last week, just in time to give to my quilt guild for their annual craft show.
MyGirl wasn't happy with me. She wanted me to keep it for our own family. Right now I'm working on a Halloween quilt for our family. I guess I'll have to make a table topper for us after that, though the whole rounded corner binding. . . maybe not, though it was another good learning opportunity for me ;-)

 I added a little hand stitching around the pumpkin I appliqued.
 I just made up this design. Nothing fancy, but he's got a little personality, and that's the fun of designing your own pumpkin, right?

The side piecing was actually designed after one of my favorite scrapbook designs I've used many times on cards and on pages for backing one particular photo. Good design easily crosses over from one medium to another. I really liked these fabrics, though, and a couple of them will be used also on my quilt. . . more to come. When my mom asked me how I did it, I said, "Well I cut out a rectangle, and from there, I designed everything around that." And that's pretty much how it went. 


Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Best Grilled Chicken

After years of grilling chicken I have finally found the way I want to make it for the rest of my life. I searched on the web for the ways others are doing it, then created my own version, and it was delicious!!!

I started by taking six breasts and putting each one between two pieces of parchment paper, then pounding them so that they were all about 2/3 of an inch (I did not measure, but was looking for a uniform size. )Then I put them all into a gallon sized zip top bag.
Next I zested a whole small lemon, minced a garlic clove, and measured 1 tsp of dried oregano, 1 tsp of dried parsley, 1/2 tsp. of  dried thyme,  1/2 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of pepper. I sprinkled all of that into the bag. Then I poured in 1/4 cup of olive oil, closed up the bag, and mushed it all together to where it all looked pretty uniformly covered. I let that sit in the fridge for a little less than two hours. 
Then I came back, added 2 cups of cold water, 1/2 tsp. of sugar and 1/2 tsp. of salt and mushed it all back and forth inside the bag and let it sit in the fridge for another 30 minutes.
Then I took out each individual breast, and patted it dry and put it on a large plate. 
Then I had my son grill them all on our gas grill on med-high heat for about 5 minutes on each side. 

They came out so juicy and flavorful!  
The pieces were so big when pounded, that all the women had half sized pieces and there are still two left. These will make the best lunch today with some sliced cob corn, romaine lettuce, and green onion. 
My mouth is watering just thinking about it. 


 My brother and his son were in town this past week and twice we all went to our favorite local park. On this particular day LittleGuy was all about catching bugs so BigBuddy was a good cousin and caught a grasshopper for him. Here they made the exchange.
 Then he excitedly ran over to show the rest of us.
 And, as soon as he opened his hands it jumped away again.
LittleGuy and MyGirl continued to chase it while the rest of us sat on the picnic bench enjoying the beautiful day. Summer this year has been either gorgeous or wet. We try to get out and enjoy the gorgeous as often as we can. Having little ones close by makes that both necessary and special. It was fun to see he and his dad again.