Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mother's birthday. We're happy to have here here at our house, riding out the storm. At this time, Hurricane Sandy is battering the north east coast of the US. Praying that our family and friends are all safe and sound.

Birthday bouquet from my cousin.

We celebrated mom's birthday all weekend, with my sister and Julia in town! I did a lot of cooking, so I didn't have time to take pictures. Here are the Pinterest recipes I tried for the first time.

Apple Crisp
This was perfect for after the football game.

Butternut Squash Gratin
Yum! We would have liked it better without the onion. My grandmother made a delicious butternut squash. This wasn't it, but it was good anyway.

Autumn Chopped Salad
We all needed seconds (and thirds)! I'm glad I have enough ingredients leftover to make it again.

Pistachio Cake
Pistachio is my mother's favorite ice cream, so I figured she'd like the cake. She loved it! She was wishing there was pistachio ice cream, too, but we thought that would be overkill. Vanilla was fine.

Oh, look! There is one slice left!  I'll stick a candle in it later so we can sing Happy Birthday!

Quick Crafts

 Julia needed a "secret buddy" gift for work.  Today is her last day working at Girl Scout day camp and their secret buddies will be revealed.  There were a few small gifts and silly notes along the way, but something more substantial was needed for the final gift (and a second "Thank you" gift for the buddy who gave stuff to her).

Julia's camp name is Buglez since she actually plays the bugle.  We had seen these peanut butter filled, chocolate dipped Bugles snacks on Pinterest.  Perfect!  (the leftovers got a little sweaty in the humidity when I took them out of the fridge)

**Tangent alert**  When I first saw this on Pinterest, there was no associated link to the original blog.  So I just put some peanut butter in a ziploc baggie, cut a tiny hole in one corner and squeezed some into a bugle.  I just went on the hunt for the original post and found it here at Cookies and Cups.  Shelly mixed her peanut butter with powdered sugar and a splash of milk and piped it into the bugles with a real piping bag.  I'm glad I hadn't seen the original post before I made mine!  As delicious as that extra sugar must be, ours came out just great!  And I didn't have to clean peanut butter filling out of a piping bag.

OK, on to the packaging.  We used this nifty box again from Cosmo Cricket.  The Amy Butler paper is so pretty!  I hope Julia's buddies enjoy their treats!

I did a little crafting of my own yesterday - a zippered pencil case for Julia in her favorite color!  I combined two tutorials: Spoonful of Sugar and  Sweet Verbena.  I pieced one big piece, quilted it with wavy vertical lines, and stitched up the pouch.  I wish it was a little bigger, and that I had used felt instead of batting.  And I forgot to look for a charm for the zipper.  I'll let Julia pick one out from the stash later.

Next on the sewing for school list: a laptop bag like this one from Crap I've Made.

Pins of the Day

 A few weeks ago, I confessed my Pinterest addiction.  I finally started using some of the ideas I've pinned.  Here's what I made in the last 24 hours...

Nutella No-Bakes

These are so incredibly delicious.  They are chewy and chocolatey and melt in your mouth.

 Yesterday, I showed you some gifts for Julia's teachers.  The mug mats were great for the female teachers, but what about her male band director?  How about a little bag of Nutella No Bakes?  I had just pinned this folded Treat Bag, and it was the perfect size for a few cookies.  Mine is not as cute as the original, but it does the trick. (The thank you card she had already written is sticking out the top.)

I've been pinning lots of things for Julia's graduation party - decorations, recipes, games, etc.  In under an hour, I made 25 feet of garland from this link.  I used a paper punch for the scalloped circles and a Sizzix die that cuts 4 different sizes of circles at once.  Then I sat down at my sewing machine and put the pedal to the metal!  (The I broke the 25' tape measure. Oops.)

I need to review my Pinterest boards to see what to make today!

Tangerine Peels- step1

 There is a tangerine challenge on Flickr in honor of this year's Pantone color of the year, Tangerine Tango.  I've been wanting to try the orange peel pattern and this seemed like the perfect opportunity!

I cut out and starched one peel from each of my "tangerine" fabrics.  The solid is Kona Tangerine.

(I used Erin Russek's method for preparing shapes.)

 According to the challenge rules, we can use a background color, tangerine and other oranges and one other color.  I'm thinking about using this buttery yellow background and some lime green for leaves.

I haven't decided yet if I'll hand- or machine-applique.  And I'm not sure about some of those prints.  We'll see how it looks after I cut more shapes.

Do you Pin?  I just joined Pinterest last week and I'm totally addicted!  It's a fabulous way to save links that you want to revisit.  Since it displays a photo on your board, it is so easy to find what you are looking for.  You can visit my boards by clicking on the Pinterest logo here and in my sidebar.

Here are some of m favorite quilty pins this week:

Modern New York Beauty block

Red & White Star quilt

Fun with Stripes