This Little Girl of Mine.....

Loves to cook.

At least once a week she asks if she can make supper. I'm not talking about preparing a box of macaroni and cheese or heating some chicken nuggets. No way, she had that mastered by the time she was six. Making supper is all about finding the perfect recipe.

This process can take hours, days, sometimes all week. There will be lists and lists of ingredients needed for specific recipes. I will find cookbooks on the coffee table, on Daddy's desk in the kitchen, in the bathroom book basket.

I love busying myself in the kitchen just so I can watch her in action. She always places all of the ingredients on the kitchen island, along with the measuring cups, utensils, and the recipe is propped up for easy viewing. I love this about her.

While cooking, she is completely focused. I start to count how many times I offer to help and how many times she replies, "I got it Mom, it's ok." This makes me feel very old!

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Here, she is making Chuck Wagon Barbecue Beans from "Southern Living Kids Cookbook" which is still available at Amazon, by clicking on the link above.

The first time she made this for us was on Super Bowl Sunday, so she renamed the recipe to "Super Bowl Sunday Beans." By far, this is Daddy's favorite. One day, I made the beans. Well, I attempted to make the beans, however, did not follow the recipe exactly.....a pinch of this and a dash of that.

Well, I was busted. Tasted nothing like the Super Bowl Sunday Beans this Little girl of mine makes!

Red Sox Way or NO Way

Prior to marrying my husband, we spent endless hours planning our future. We had our own preconceived notions of what our life would be like. We are blessed to have the same fundamental beliefs in child rearing, share the same religion, and political beliefs.

Although I knew from the start he is a Boston Red Sox fan, I was surprised when he asked me if I was a Red Sox or Yankee's fan early in our relationship. Well, duh.

Several years later, we took the T into Boston to watch a game at Fenway 2 weeks before our first child was born. As I recall, we had to stop 2-3 times to go tinkle before we even made it to the stadium! All for the love of the game...or my hubby!

So technically, this was our daughters first Red Sox game!

Yes, I was nine months pregnant in the picture above. It was a scrapbook moment.

The man cave includes several of his favorite Fenway prints....

Would I find Boston peanuts for you while living in Ohio, if I weren't a fan?

Thanks to Pepere & Grandma, we have a Dustin Pedroia fat head on our son's bedroom wall.

All was well until Little League started this Spring.

This is Little Man's first season playing. Boy was he scared to show Daddy his new uniform.

"There is a hook in the garage for your jersey & cap, son." That was all he would say about it. I think he even had a sleepless night thinking about it!

But, I'm sure Daddy is thrilled to see you in your Boston Red Sox jacket on the bench with your Yankee teammates!

Go Sox!

All the right tools and supplies

One might argue, I like to collect things. One might also argue, I like to compartmentalize my things. I've even been known to spend hours organizing and reorganizing my things until they are both functional and pleasing to the eye.

Having said that, I thought I would share a few of my favorite tools and collections in the studio.

For starters, I love my June Taylor quilting press which all my supplies are currently staged on. Having grown up one of six kids, scissors were something never to be found in our house. And using Mom's sewing scissors on paper was grounds for disownment!

Yes, it may appear to be too many scissors, but, if you sew, I'm sure you'll completely agree you need different scissors for different projects. I started using a rotary cutter 15 years ago. I LOVE cutting out all of my sewing projects with the rotary cutter. Almost feels foreign using scissors to cut-out a fabric project with scissors. If you haven't noticed, they are very sharp and I'm surprised most of the rotary cutters available today, do not have a guide to protect your hands.

On a side note, while cutting out a quilt many years ago, I sliced off part of my left pointer finger. This was when the show "ER" was very popular. I was living alone at the time. I felt very faint. I called a taxi cab to take me to the emergency room. I brought the corner of my finger, which still had part of my finger nail attached, with me to the ER, in a baggie on ice. They were very polite not to laugh at me when I showed them my iced finger chunk, however, I'm sure it made for great dinner table discussion that night! Needless to say my finger healed just fine. Back to the point of this post....

I think you'll also agree you never have too much thread. I love my chest of embroidery thread.

All the colors of the rainbow....

Even with all the neatness of the embroidery thread chest 0f drawers & the Gutermann rack, I still can't part with a basket full of thread. I love digging to the bottom of the basket to find a new spool to wind up my bobbins.

Sitting on my workstation, I also keep a basket of my patterns. These aren't very photogenic since they are my own patterns made with muslin and my chicken scratch notes all over them.

Just look at all those D rings for the aprons, wristlets & diaper caddy's. Grommets for the backpacks, and silver shank buttons waiting to be dressed.

Based on the above picture, would you believe me if I told you I had to go to the fabric store the other night because I needed a zipper. Unbelievable. My kids inventoried the zippers for me after the new year. 100's of zippers and I didn't have the right color for an LBs purse!

I would love to hear about your favorite sewing tools, garden tools, or kitchen gadgets.

Happy Sewing!

Please Meet Sir Earl Grey

I am typically not fond of cats. Always thought of myself as a dog person. Growing up with a cat or two, I always thought of them as my sister's cats. Maybe this was just so I wouldn't have to feed them.

A few years ago a beautiful gray cat was found sleeping on our front wicker chair.

I would meet my neighbor out front at 6:00 a.m. each morning to walk...and there slept the gray cat. Upon my return, I could not get in the house without being loved on, purred on, drooled on. Such a Lovey!

After many attempts to find the rightful owners of the gray cat, and with the help of our neighbors, we decided to adopt him. This was also after much begging & pleading with hubby!

Instantly, he became a part of our family.

Playing games with us.....

He makes every attempt to do his brothers homework.....

He tolerates our low maintenance puppy, Gilbert....

He stands in the window most afternoons waiting for his friends to come home.

He follows me around the studio like a 2 year old.

Always finding the sunny spot....

Or trying to stay out of mischief....

He's walked across the sewing machine foot pedal while I'm sewing, a few times now...

He has been a delight from the start. Did I mention, he does not shed,

nor does he meow. Ever.

I love my Sir Earl Grey