Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I don't know about you, but I am sooooo unbelievably excited for the feasting that is upon us all. What do you guys eat for the holiday? A traditional Thanksgiving meal?

I am actually celebrating Thanksgiving at an Aunt's house for the first time and I have no idea what to expect. The food there is always fantastic and my aunt is quite the hostess, so I'm sure it will be amazing. 

Then, on Sunday I will be cooking a second Thanksgiving meal for another sect of my family. There are going to be between 12-15 people. It will be the 2nd Thanksgiving that I'll cook, so I still consider myself a newbie. Here is the menu, pretty standard items mostly:

• Turkey! I am following an America's Test Kitchen turkey recipe this year for the most moist turkey ever.
• Gravy, duh, I know.. Considering last year when I cooked I felt like the gravy was the most frantic thing that I've ever cooked. Then when I think back to all of my Thanksgivings, gravy is wicked frantic for everyone. So. Given that, I am making my graving the day before by using 5 pounds of turkey wings and some giblets and such and then just re-heating it on Thanksgiving Day. I hope it works.I just hate being that frantic and I want to be able to spend time with my guests!
• Cranberry sauce. I loooove cranberry sauce. 
• Buttery rolls in our bread maker.
• Baked Sweet Potatoes
• Mashed potatoes probably loaded with butter.
• Sauteed peas and onions.
• For Dessert --- Pumpkin Trifle! I made it at my housewarming party and it was seriously outstanding. Outstanding! Maybe I'll share the recipe with you. 

My favorite part of Thanksgiving is for sure the leftovers. I CANNOT WAIT to have a turkey mashed potato and gravy sandwich at work on Monday. Woohoo!!

Ok everyone, have an amazing Thanksgiving with your friends and family

Craft Room Progress & Giveaway Winner

Welcome to my craft room (in progress). 


I finally have everything unpacked and put away. Well, let's be honest, it's not really put away, it is more like ... put somewhere. 

 (view from upstairs hallway)

 (my worktable)

Here is most of my fabric stash. The very top row is all of my fabric that is either reserved for another project or not quilting cotton. I have an old bridesmaids dress, some linens, home decor weight, and a pair of jeans. All of my quilting cotton is organized by color, obviously. I am clearly low on red, orange, and purple. 

This section of bookcases has more sewing/quilting stuff on it. The top shelf is reserved Heather Ross Far Far Away II fabric that I am hoarding, followed by the fabric for the My Sweet Charli quilt that I have been working on. The second shelf from the top is my Anna Maria Horner shelf because I am her #1 Fan. The 3rd shelf there is my Famer's Wife Quilt-a-long shelf with all the fabrics that I have reserved for that there. The other shelves are miscellaneous quilting/sewing crap that is in desperate need of organization.

 

This set of bookcases houses my entire yarn stash and collection of knitting needs and crochet hooks. Oh, and the top shelf is apparently where I store the 16 birdcages that I bought at Michaels one day. Woops. Impulsive much?

Although this set of bookcases doesn't look particularly organized, I at least started. The top shelf is all of my scrapbooking goodies. Down from there is my jewelry shelf, embroidery, notebooks/cards (really? An entire shelf for notebooks and cards?), then a bookshelf, then a shelf for my gocco and its supplies, and lastly a totally miscellaneous shelf. 
 

My window. Thank God I have a window in the room. I am pretty sure that I'd go nuts without one. Also, apparently that's my shelf for wrapping paper. 

My blank wall with only the ironing board. Very exciting, I know.

Ooo and my closet. It isn't really a full closet because it has a staircase which leads to the attic, but it certainly has enough space for my extra crap.
 

Now that I've shown you my messy crafting room, I absolutely have to get it tidied up over the next year. I am getting a great feel for where I want things and stuff like that, so this will be fun!

Ok. Now to that GIVEAWAY WINNER! The winner is Kimberly who had like 11 entries into the contest because she linked my blog to her blog post. I would have been shocked if Random.org didn't select her. Wooo hoo! Hey Kim, check your e-mail!

Thanks for entering, everyone.

Holler!

I made a pillowcase

Cutting up the 3.5 yards of solid fabric (Kona Snow) for the Apple Crate quilt I'm making for Charli seemed so daunting for some reason, so I decided to try and make one of the pillowcases to match the quilt set.

I've never attempted to make a pillowcase before. I followed this tutorial step by step. I found the process really easy and very quick, but this woman really made me mad because her verbal instructions were horrendous. I am still not sure if I used the correct seam allowance in a few places. Oh well. 

These are the fabrics for one of the 2 standard pillowcases that I plan on making to match the quilt. All fabrics aside from the solid, come from Tula Pink's Parisville collection in the Pomegranate colorway. I bought them at Hawthorne Threads.


I did follow the youtube video exactly, so I won't give you measurements or anything like that here. Just some process pictures:

This part is actually really cool. It creates a hidden seam and is pretty awesome. 
 

TA DA! I am actually pretty proud of myself. Don't you love the pillowcase? Part of me thinks that it is a little too big for the pillow, but I also hate big fluffy pillows.
 

One pillowcase down. One to go. One sham to make. Oh... and one quilt to cut, piece, quilt, and bind. Right...

GIVEAWAY GIVEAWAY GIVEAWAY

Don't forget to check out my last blog post and enter that giveaway before Sunday 11/20 @ 5:00 PM. 

Holler!

GIVEAWAY!

My Sweet Little Goddaughter and her momma, (my best friend / shopping accomplice), left me for their home in Germany this past weekend. Given my now sad and lonely state of mind and the fact that my house looks like an A-bomb test site, I am having a giveaway to perk up my day, and hopefully yours. 


Actually. This giveaway is really sparked by today being my 1 year Blogging Anniversary. Blogiversary?


To all of my readers out there, I present to you a few of my favorite things / new obsessions Guess what? I am giving away ALL of them! 

1) A little fat quarter pack of some Tula Pink fabric from her most recent collection called Parisville, in the Sprout colorway. (Note that there are 2 of the fabrics missing... they were on backorder and I still haven't received them! Boo...)

2) Some spices that I love from Penzey's Spices. I am giving away 4 jars of my favorite baking spices: China Tung Hing Cinnamon, East Indies Ground Nutmeg, Powdered Ginger, & Ceylon Cinnamon. They are reallyyyyyyy good. The cinnamon is amazinggg! 

 

3) The coveted Swoon Quilt pattern! 

4) A pair of Mark B Gone pens... yes both white and blue! 

5) A mug rug made by yours truly.  

6) A pair of Fingerless Mittens that I made last year. They are made of a great merino wool that I bought at my local yarn store.

7) Some pretty Bamboo Ewe yarn in a firey red color.

8) A pint size ball jar, because I am clearly obsessed with them and I am working on getting YOU hooked too! 

9) A cute little notebook just for fun.

 

HOW TO WIN!

In order to ENTER this giveaway, you can do a few things:

1) You can get 1 entry if you leave a comment on this post (you must leave your e-mail address so I can contact you. No e-mail address = no entry)

2) If you become a follower of this blog, you will get another entry. To become a follower, follow the links on my sidebar.

3) If you mention my blog/this giveaway in a post on your blog, you will get 10 entries! Provide a link to your post in a comment.

This giveaway will run until Sunday at 5:00 pm. A winner will be announced shortly after and your package will be ready to mail out on Monday!

Good luck.

Holler!

Nip Slip

Totally just noticed this.

Now, whenever I am cuddling up with this quilt, all I can think of are boobs.

On the Sticks

There has been some knitting in this house lately. Lots of started but unfinished projects. As usual.

A supremely thick and warm scarf knitted up on size 13 needles using the Mistake Stitch Ribbing pattern.

Obviously hard to tell  what this project is, but it should be the start to these little knit baskets:

 

But, I can't figure out how to follow the instructions. Has anyone made these before? If so, can you please please please e-mail so I can pick your brain about a step here? I am definitely digging the color though. Actually, it is the exact same yarn as the little hexagon in the background. Just noticed that.

Ahhh... knitting.... my one true love. Only if there was enough time in the day to finish it all. Maybe that's what I'll ask for for Christmas this year, time.

Holler.