Pots and Pins

Blistered Olives...

5 sets of sheets and 8 towels, the remains of our houseguests.  After the first load was done, I noticed the rug on the floor was wet.  I yelled to the mister and told him there was water on the floor.  He walked into the laundry room, saw the wet rug and puddle of water and said it was normal.  Normal?!?!?  Godfrey!  I reminded him that HIM saying all was well and normal did not make it so!  The washer has never leaked before and it's only a year old so this was definitely NOT normal!  I pulled the washer and dryer away from the wall and saw more water...the dirty towels waiting to be washed in a heap on the floor, were spread about and the water was sopped up.  The mister, who had left the laundry room so as not to be involved in the sopping,  returned with some pliers and tightened up the hoses in back - said all was good to go.  I picked up the dripping wet towels and hung them up to dry - waiting till morning to do more laundry seemed like a good idea.  In the light of day, the mister decided to have another look at the washer - he thought he would tighten up those hoses one more time, just to make sure all was well.  I heard him rattling about then I heard water spraying and the mister yelled for help!  Luckily the boy was here and he ran into the laundry room and the two of them set about spraying each other and the walls and everything else until they finally got the water turned off - a true father-son-bonding moment.   The 8 dry towels went back on the floor, along with 5 more.  The boy went to Home Depot.  They mister went back to bed.   I sat myself down to calculate how many loads of laundry I have waiting for me!

Let's talk olives.  Blistered olives.  If you're an olive fan then this will be welcome news...blistered olives are elevated olives.  Their flavor is enhanced, bolder and served warm they are Happy Hour's best friend. 

Start with a jar of olives, any kind...stuffed, un-stuffed, green, Kalamata, even black!  This is easy, takes 5 minutes and will rock your olive-lovin'-world!

Fry everything together in a bit of olive oil...the olives will begin to sizzle and blister a bit - let them get blistered/browned and then it's time to party!  These my friends, will put the Happy in Happy Hour, even if you're just sipping mocktails!

Blistered Olives - From A Foodie's Diet For Me

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 jar green olives

1 teaspoon garlic, minced

1 teaspoon red chili flakes (or less, depending on how much heat you want)

zest of 1 lemon

In a frying pan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat until hot.  Add remaining ingredients, stirring to coat the olives.  Saute olives for about 5 minutes or so until just starting to get brown, blistering them a bit.  Remove and serve warm, at room temperature or cold. 

 

Max's 10th Birthday...

 

(Warning:  Exclamation Point overload...)  When my 10 year old grandson, Max,  asked for a birthday cake, of course I said I'd make it...then I heard what he wanted...it had to have something from a National Park and the front end of a Prius and street lamps.  I kid you not.  I managed to talk Max out of the Prius, since he had that on his cake last year.  I even managed to talk him out of the street lamps - he loves to go outside right before dusk and watch the lights come on.  But try as I might, I could not talk him out of a National Park theme...and since he loves the Delicate Arch, I did my best to make it!  The Delicate Arch is located in Moab, Utah, in Arches National Park.  It happens to be one of Max's favorite places - and National Parks are his latest obsession.  He loves everything about the parks and if you ask him what he wants to do when he grows up, he'll tell you he wants to be a park ranger, and possibly an astronaut.  Max loves the hoodoos in the parks (rock formations) and there's a Paiute Indian legend that says if you are bad in this life you are turned into a hoodoo...you've been warned! 

 

I flew to SLC on Tuesday evening, got up Wednesday morning and made the cake, then ran around all day picking up the rest of the stuff with the girl, raced back to the girl's house and we decorated for the party that started at 4:00...TIME was NOT on my side.  So the cake is not exactly like the Delicate Arch...but all I had to work with were marshmallows, toothpicks and a soft frosting...however, Max was impressed!  Max was super excited about his party, it was his first real "friend" party...kids with Autism have a hard time making friends so this was a really big deal for all of us!  Max invited kids from his neighborhood, church and school and all of them came!  Every time the doorbell rang he ran to answer it and was so surprised to see the kids!  If you had been there you would never have seen a happier boy in all the land!

We found the salt lamp at a thrift store - Max loved it...and when he walked in the door from school and saw his party set-up - he actually jumped up and down!  We also bought a book on National Parks for $1.50 at the thrift shop - we took the pages out of the book and stuck them around the house for the kids to find...kept them busy for about 5 minutes.  I gave Max the Ranger shirt he is wearing - which he's probably out-grown by now - he's getting SO tall!  I ordered the shirt from Amazon, and the patches and sewed them on - just look at his face - he lovvvvvvved it!  Elsa was happy to be by his side throughout the party!

Did you know you can purchase 25 lb. bags of red rocks at Home depot?  I bought two bags for 12 kids, it was just the right amount.  The rocks were perfect for making miniature hoodoos!  The kids spent about 30 minutes stacking up their rocks, trying to make the tallest hoodoo, without having it fall over.   ( I thought that little project would last about 5 minutes, too, but they really had fun and didn't want to stop!)  Making hoodoos was right up Max's alley - he takes hoodoo making very seriously!

Max is the sweetest child - such a big heart, so smart, so kind to his sister and family.  I love him.  Like really, really love him.  My mom gave Max this picture and we hung it up on their wall in their family room - Max is "showing" us the picture - he was SO happy when he first saw it!  I asked him to give me a "Vanna pose" and he did!

Once you learn to pose like Vanna it's hard to stop!  I can hardly believe Max is 10...time truly is flying by and I'm holding on as fast as I can!  I don't get to see Max and Elsa as often as I would like, which would be every day if I had a say, but I'm very grateful for the time I do get to spend with them.     

 

Happy Birthday Maxwell...you're what makes my heart beat.


 

Quilt Group Friday...

For the past few months the only time I have to spend in my sewing room is at night.  I'm a hack quilter at best so can you imagine if I tried to do any piecing at night with blurred vision and a foggy brain?!?  That's how one becomes very up close and personal with one's seam ripper!  I go to my quilt group meetings feeling like the slacker I am, only to leave inspired and motivated to get home and get to quilting!  Then reality slaps me upside my head and all I can do these days is think about the quilts I want to make! 

This is a pillow Diane made...she bought the panel and then sewed on the leather and suede -this is one of two.  Very clever, cool, completely wonderful.  Diane hosted us and she served us a wonderful lunch, it's always fun to go to her home!

Diane showed us a tutorial on Missouri Star Quilts for a new way of making stars - it's very interesting and if you haven't seen it, watch it, you'll be as impressed as we were!  Here's the link:  Stars and Stripes Quilt Tutorial  Our group is making a different star, however, which is our new project for American Hero Quilts.  The star we are making is pictured above and it's from Cluck Cluck Sew, here's the link for her tutorial:  No Point Stars.  Cluck Cluck Sew's pattern is great because you can trim the block down to whatever size you want, without losing the points!  Who knew?!?  When we get enough star blocks we will sew them up into a quilt and give to American Hero Quilts.

This is  Diane's house quilt - pretty dang wonderful!  I love the blue at the top and the white fabric behind the roofs - it makes all of the houses really stand out.  We had a bit of discussion about "white" in quilts - I'm all for it, I like that the white shows off the other fabrics.  I really need to get my house quilt done!  Oy vey.

Diane was helping a friend clean out her sewing room or maybe she was moving, can't remember, anyway, the friend was going to toss the machine embroidered rabbit fabric!!  Diane was at the right place at the right time and saved the bunny!!  She turned it into this cute pillow and then sewed on all of those tiny little buttons!!! 

 This little beauty was made by Helen with Timeless Treasures fabrics - not her "normal cup o' tea."  But if you'll notice, the blocks are definitely "Helen" blocks...she'll give this to one of the two great-grandchildren that will be born soon!  On another note, Helen told our group about a new quilting TV show on PBS, it's called Fresh Quilting  - be sure to check it out!

That's Barbara's arm holding up her latest quilt, called Clamshells.  This picture doesn't show the true colors, it's much happier in person!  This looks like so much work to me - anytime there's a curve it has to be pinned and y'all know I hate pinning!  But Barbara assured us it was easy...maybe for her!  Looks at all those fun fabrics!!

Janet bought this panel and then "chenilled" it and made it into a pillow.  I think it's pretty dang swell...people still say swell, right?  The pillow has been washed but it might take another few washings before the fabric is truly like a chenille. 

That's my hand holding the Chenille cutter that Janet used to make her pillow..it slips under the layers of fabrics and cuts them, without cutting through the bottom fabric - pretty cool!  Who thinks these things up?? 

Speaking of thinking things up, Stephanie has been collecting bottle caps for quite a while - she had enough caps for her art class students to make these incredible pictures/bottle cap paintings!  Who would ever think of doing something like this?!?!  Pretty cool, no?

They are rather quilt-like, too...I love these projects and I'm sure Stephanie's kids did, too! 

Stephanie's scrap quilt is officially done - quilted and bound - and it's wonderful!  Let me remind you that those blocks are made from scraps that people were going to throw away!  Stephanie rescued them and made this fabulous quilt...I'd like to say I now save my scraps because of this but...

Terry very generously volunteered to sew together the blocks our group made and then she quilted and bound this quilt.  It was headed for donation to our favorite charity but when I told the group about a dear friend who has some serious health issues and asked if we could give it to her, it was unanimous, they all instantly said yes.  I took the quilt to my friend, who is also friends with many in our quilt group and when she saw it she cried happy tears and immediately covered herself with the quilt.  I've been to visit her several times and each time she's had the quilt over her.  Hopefully she knows it was truly stitched with love. 

This is Terry's house quilt - another masterpiece!!!  I love the white, love the bright happy colors, too!  Terry asked us to use "Kaffe" fabrics...only see a few but it all works so nicely!  This is a really big quilt and Terry didn't use all of the houses she received in it - so she made a smaller version...

Sorry this is blurry - even so, you can tell just how wonderful this little quilt it!  I like the idea of giving a "house quilt" as a baby gift, especially if someone in my neighborhood had a baby, how sweet would that be???  From all the neighbors...if the neighbors quilted...if I quilted...

Terry made this quilt a while ago - she has been so good about finishing up projects!  I love the sweet simplicity of this quilt - and the colors remind me of sherbet...and who doesn't like that?!?

This is another quilt Terry pulled from her project pile and finished...wonder how many she has left to do??  I'm so impressed with all Terry manages to get done...I love the flowers in this quilt - years ago I made a flower quilt and I've been thinking of many another one...maybe in my next life.

This sweet little quilt is made with the left-over scraps from the quilt below...Kareena made it.  I'm so glad my grand-daughter Elsa is too young to read my blog because she would see this picture and want this quilt and the bigger one, too...she's a HUGE fan of anything pink!  If I was a really good grandma I'd make her one...like I said, in my next life!  Way to go Kareena!

Kareena's ombre pink crayon quilt...love, love, love this!  As in really love this.  Pink crayons are my favorite.  Just sayin'.

I didn't get a very good picture of this massive Halloween quilt Kareena is making.  She is going to have barbed-wire quilted into the quilt...pretty cool!  The pattern for the crows came from Martha Stewart, so you know it's a good thing.

Check out these coasters Denise made - they are beaded all the way around!  So cute!  Denise brought some other fabric coasters she made, the kind that go around the bottom of a wine glass, but I failed to get a picture of them!  So sorry!  

In my notes I wrote down that Denise made these cross-stitched pictures but then I wrote her grandma did...maybe she made them for her grandma??  I can barely keep things straight, even when I write then down!  But no matter, they are wonderful, whoever made them! 

I'll leave you with a picture of the pretty table Diane set for us and a picture of some of the food she made...chicken salad sandwiches with croissants, a delicious green salad, her signature tomato bisque soup and cheesecake with strawberries!  I think there was something else, too, she always takes good care of us!  Thanks Diane!