Wedding shower

The weekend of June 14 my niece Jennifer, my mom, Phyllis and I put on a wedding shower for my youngest niece who is getting married in August in NYC.  We worried about how to have a shower where she wouldn't have to figure out how to get everything back to NYC.  Shipping to her residence isn't possible as items can't be left as they would sit on the stoop.  And sending it to her work address would mean having to schlep the items home on the train.  So we decided to have a gift card shower for her and Jason.  That way they can get exactly what they need/want.

We had the perfect day.  The Friday before it was only about 54 degrees and very cloudy all day. Saturday found us with clear sunny sky, and temperatures in the 70's.  So we were able to have the shower out in my mother's backyard.  It turned out very nice and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

 

Gift table

 

Refreshments were set up on the porch.

 

 

A few of the guests.  These were former co-workers of my sister-in-law.

 

 



 

Bride to be Denise

 



 

Denise with Grandma Beard

 



Chloe Centino, Jason's mom, Denise, and Rebecca Beard, Denise's mom

 

Grandma Beard with the grand and great grand daughters.

 

Pamela with daughter Molly, Denise and Jennifer

 

Big 60

So a couple of weekends ago I threw myself a 60th birthday party.  I figured surviving to this age rated a party as there were times in my life I didn't think I would see 35 let alone 60.  But as life has gone on and I have come to accept my singlehood instead of pining for the relationships/marriages that my friends have, I've grown comfortable.  Now I fully expect to see 85 at a minimum.

I had the party at SmittenDust which is a friends business in an old brick building in Dimondale.

I had fun making table runners, whose fabric will be used to make quilts for children in local hospitals through our guild's heart warmer's program.  The vases on the tables will get reused for my niece's bridal shower in June.  I had family, quilting friends and highschool friends.  And I think everyone had a pretty good time.

Quilting friends

 

 

Family



High school friends

 

Scraps... of all sorts

I home everyone has a great holiday weekend!  I woke up Saturday morning to find my battery had died in my truck.  But brother Mike to the rescue and by the end of the day I was up and running the roads again.

Yesterday I was at my mom's sorting through 4 boxes of fabric that a friends daughters brought over for her.  Betty Smith used to be a member of my mom's quilting circle, "What you see is what you get!".  The piecing gene seems to have passed my mother.  She will quilt and embroider but doesn't like piecing, and doesn't believe in having a stash@#!?  She has always bought just what she needed for a quilt  and then can't stand what's left over. 

So yesterday we sorted through the boxes.   We found enought pink and/or blue for at least 1 girl and 1 boy baby quilt.  Enough red and green christmas prints to make something with and also enough patriotic.  Then there were the "others", feed sacks, 60's or 70's prints, some much older that must have belong to Betty's mother or grandmother or mother-in-law.  Here are what I brought home.




Even some funky cheaters cloth.

I have been enjoying Bonnie Hunter's blog lately, http://quiltville.blogspot.com/.  A friend is using Bonnie's pattern, Scappy Trips Around the World for her block exchange.  And I had noticed it a while ago as well.  So yesterday we began cutting strips to just see what happens.  I brought them home to sew them and see what comes out.  Whatever comes out we will probably donate the items to the VFW for their holiday craft show/sale in November.  I will post as things move along.

 

Something else my friend Carol has been doing was "deboning mens shirts", which Bonnie also has a video on.  Carol has does a demo on cutting a man's plaid shirt up into usable yardage for scrap quilts.  Well, I did pretty well at the flea market with my designer fabric samples, so why not try this.  I might want some of the yardage but I really don't need it all.  So I bought 5 shirts this past weekend and took them apart.  I plan on ironing the fabric and then putting it in bags at the flea market for sewers/quilters to buy.  I will probably label it "deboned shirts" and sell them for about $3 with pieces from several shirts so they get a good selection.  These are the shirts I got this weekend.

 

Now for the final scraps.  Yesterday I took lunch with me to my mom's.  I did chicken on a skewer and separate skewers of vegetables (green peppers and cherry tomatoes off my plants, summer squash, zucchini, sweet onion and mushrooms.). Tonight I'm taking the left over veggies roasting them in the oven with sweet corn added and a little olive oil and salt and pepper.  It smells soo good right now I can hardly wait to tuck in.

 

 

 

Well, smells like it is just about ready so I have to go.  Have a good evening.







Holiday baking

Finally feeling better and doing the worst thing someone watching their weight should do, filling the house with baking. But since I need every cookie for gifts it makes it easier not to give into temptation. Last weekend I did a new chocolate cookies with Andres peppermint & white chocholate chips in them. Today I baked a new cookie with oats and flour, pecans, bitter sweet chocholate and shaved milk choclate. I think they look pretty good. See.

Also made some Russian tea cakes which I have never made before but have enjoyed..

I also mixed up a batch of my old standby "refrigerator cookies". This makes a large batch, so I split it and put toffee bits in half and almonds in the other. These will get baked up tomorrow at mom's house. All I have left is chocolate dip some pretzels and marshmallows. That should be enough holiday baking.

Chicago Weekend

My niece, Jennifer lives and works in Chicago.  Recently I was looking at a blog that talked about the Randolph Street Fleamarket in Chicago.  It is the last week of each month during the summer.  So I wrote my niece to tell her about it.  I'm not sure if she invited me or I asked to come for a visit but we decided on this weekend. First I borrowed a GPS which I love, love, love.  No keeping track of maps and ramp numbers, just let the little voices when to get over to the right or left and then a little dinging sound that tells you that you did good.  I've got to get me one of these.

I got to Chicago quite quickly, 4 hours, but I didn't know that Jennifer had to work until 7:30, so that gave me about 4 hours.  So she called and told me how to get to the salon where she works.  So I walked there and got to see quite a bit of the neighborhood where she lives and works, Andersonville/Ravenswood.  After dropping in to say hi, she gave me the keys to her apartment, but told me that the shops in the neighborhood were worth checking out.  So here are a few of the shops.

Brimfield was a great shop that has antiques and specialized upholstery with wool blankets and other interesting fabrics.

Foursided was a cool shop.  Framing, art work and paper ephemera like old classroom charts and maps.

Andersonville Galleria had a lot of wonderful artistic items.

So after grabbing a little lunch I walked back to the apartment to wait for Jennifer to get home.

I love her building as it reminds me a lot of my last apartment in downtown Lansing with hardwood floors, glass doorknobs, terrazo floors in the bathroom.

Saturday morning Jennifer had go to into work for a couple of hours.   When she got home we went to the flea market.  There were vendors outside and then in the Plumbers has in the auditorium there were more higher end vendors set up.  Although not as big as I hoped, it was lots of fun.  And we both got a little sunburnt.

When we got back from the flea market Jennifer asked me to show her some of the features on the sewing maching that I have picked up at an estate sale for her.  She wanted to try her hand at sewing curtains for in their new apartment. So we had fun going through all the features and helping her figure them out.

Saturday night I treated to dinner at a restaurant of Jennifer and Lief's choice.  Jennifer chose a mexican restaurant.  We were surprised when we got there that they take reservations but they did have 1 table for walk-ins so we were lucky.  Jennifer had scallops, Lief  mahy mahy and I had pulled pork with black beans.  All the meals were wonderful, service outstanding.  Definitely on the top of the list.

 Sunday morning after breakfast I showed her how to straighten up her fabric and how to start by finishing the edges of her fabric.  Her boyfriend became an uncle this morning at 6 am so he was anxious to head off to Michigan to see his new nephew so  we started out by noon.

Traffic was pretty slow coming home but since it was earlier than I had thought of leaving it was easy to be patient and just enjoy the sights.

So tomorrow it's back to work, with the start of the 2nd week of classes.  Well, I think a good time was had by all.  Thanks for the good time Jennifer and Lief.

Tomatoes & Quilt block

Something else we got out of the garden on Sunday were some unique tomatoes.  My mom bought the plants from a neighbor of my brother and his wife.  They are about the size of a golf ball but are almost black in color.  They are nice and sweet.

Tonight is the Variable Star group meeting.  We just started a block exchange.  Two months ago we couldn't decide just what we wanted to do next, round robin, mystery quilt, block exchange, etc.  So we threw everything in a hat and ended up drawing out a block exchange.  This is the first month that blocks are due.  I started with Melanie's block which is pictured below.

We will also have our quilt for Dian who just moved to Florida.  So people are supposed to sign their blocks tonight.

Peaches, Sweet Peaches

Friday my mom got a card from our favorite U-pick farm, Hanulcik Farm in Ionia.  Peaches were ready for picking on the weekends, so we immediately made plans to go pick at least a few on Sunday afternoon. Over the years my mother and I have always enjoyed picking whatever was in season.  Hanulcik's have strawberries, peaches, plums, necatrines, and 5 or 6 varities of apples.  The peach varities that were ready to pick were, Red Havens and Paul Fridays, so we each picked a peck of peaches.  Jo Lange, a close friend, went along too and she picked a half bushel.  We all picked  Red Havens and then just to try the Paul Friday variety we picked just a peck of those and split them between us.

I can't think of many things better than spending time in an orchard.  The dropped fruit that has started to ferment adds a lovely sweet smell to the air, and the trees look just lovely laden down with fruit.  By the time we drove from the orchard to the barn to pay and opened the trunk, all that peachy wonderfulness rushed out at you.  Although beautifully colored, the peaches were a little hard, but a day or two in storage should ripen them quickly.

I think mom is was going to make a cobbler to take to hospice this week.  Today she was busy putting up corn relish before the racoons get any more of her sweet corn.   I sliced up a few to go on sponge cake at the Charm group potluck tonight. And think I may do that to the rest  and just freeze them.  Although I'm toying with the thought of trying to make peach butter.  I picked up cherry butter and pear butter at Shipshewana a few weeks go, and am going to look for a recipe to make peach butter, is there is such a thing.

Peaches, plums and nectarines should be ready next week.  Applies in September or October although a frost really hurt the apple crop there in Michigan this year.

Summertime

How do you know summer is really here?  For me, I just realized it's when I make my first batch of Carrie's Cabbage Salad (better known as Freezer Slaw).  This was always a mainstay in our fridge when we were kids.  As soon as the peppers would come on in the garden my mom would make a gallon jug of it.  With every meal it would be my job to get a bowl of slaw out of the jug.  You had to know just how much "juice" to get out and how much to leave in the jug.  Because every time it got just about 1/2 to 1/4 full it would be time to chop some more cabbage, peppers and onions to add to the jug. So it was there every evening, sweet, crisp and cold, a taste of summer.  

Next best taste will be the first ripe, juice tomato of the season, but that is still a way off.