Heidi's Pillows

I am so excited that Heidi's bed set is complete! I am saving the quilt to show for the Blogger's Quilt Festival in a few days. But I wanted to share the pillows that I made for her bedding set.

 This pillow FREE pillow pattern is from a wonderful Australia designer at the Don't Look Now blog. They have wonderful applique quilt patterns. I've been dying to try the pillow and I'm just tickled with how it worked out.

This pillow I just used four squares and then added a couple of applique flowers from the above pattern. Then I covered two buttons and put them on either side.

I combined two fabrics for this pillow and added some jumbo ric rac trim and a pretty little embroidered accent. All the pillows are backed with aqua minky like the quilt.

The pièce de résistance is a cute little personalized pillow with her name. I got this pattern from The Polkadot Chair blog.

 I'll be delivering the set this weekend and hope Heidi will love it. It has been a labor of love for sure :). 

Homemade Oreos

I thought I would make one of my kids favorites today, Homemade Oreos! Super simple and simply scrumptious!

Here is the recipe:

HOMEMADE OREOS (Cakesters)

2 boxes Double Fudge Cake Mix (actually any chocolate variety should work)

4 Eggs

3/4 cups Vegetable Oil

That's it! Mix all together and roll into uniform balls (I use a cookie scoop), and place on a cookie sheet.

Cook at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

They should come out looking like this! Cool completely on a cooling rack.

Now the best part, frosting! Use one jar of store bought frosting in Buttercream or Vanilla. Or you can make your own buttercream. I colored my Find too cookies that are similar in size, frost one side and put them together. Voila!

Soft and and oh so yummy, enjoy!

The fun thing is that you can use ANY kind of cake mix. My next favorite is Lemon. We call them Lemon-Os. Use lemon cake mix and lemon frosting. Also really cook with carrot or spice cake and cream cheese frosting, yum!

Meet Rodon

When my brother Matt was in 2nd grade he wrote a book called "The Robot That Was Built on Earth". It's about a robot named Rodon. We all love Rodon and he is definitely part of our family lore. (if you'd like to see the actual book, it's on YouTube, here is the link: :)

 Matt's Rodon

Since Matt and his wonderful wife, Jenny are about to have their first together, a baby boy, I thought it would bring Rodon somewhat to life! I appliqued him on a t-shirt for their little guy. I cut him out of fabric, used Steam-a-Seam and then free hand appliqued around all the edges a couple of times. I wanted him to have a "hand drawn" look. I love the way it turned out and Matt says he wants one for himself. I think I can do that. :)

I'm Rescued!

It's often been 5:00 and I'll think, oh no, what's for dinner! I'll admit cooking is not my favorite task. (And dishes are my least favorite task :) You would think I would have figured it all out by now, I've been a mom for 13 years after all!

I have found this book and it has helped me so much! It's all in the planning my dears, all in the planning. The Food Nanny makes it really easy. She plans certain foods on certain days and gives you easy recipes to go with it. I spent 1/2 this morning planning my meals for the week and my grocery list.

Now in the mornings I prepare anything I need for that night and when 5:00 rolls around, I am ready to go! I even made these homemade rolls. Yum! Thanks Food Nanny!

I ♥ Fall

I get excited just thinking about it. Fall has always been my favorite time of year. It's Back to School, my birthday :), there's a crispness in the air, changing colors, yummy smells and Halloween, one of my favorite holidays. I love to put up my Halloween decorations, including my Dept.56 Halloween village!Now if I could figure out where any of that is going to go where we are living now. When I do, I'll let you know....what's your favorite time of year?

Wishful Stitching

Organizing and unpacking is taking way too much time! It's been a bit overwhelming to go through all of our stuff that's been in storage for over a year and figure out what we need, what we don't. We went from a 4 bedroom house and are now moving into a 2 bedroom apartment until we find the right place for our family. So it's challenging. We just want to get rid of everything and start over!

In the meantime I have been just dying to finish quilting and binding my Crooked Coins quilt and I should be receiving Heidi's quilt back from the quilter soon so I can bind that one too. For now I just rush past my sewing machine hauling boxes and bags with a longing look...soon I hope!

Moda Bake Shop Day!

Yay! Today is the day that my Meandering Path Quilt tutorial is up on Moda Bake Shop! I was so thrilled to find out that I would be a "baker" in THE bake shop. If you haven't tried making this quilt yet, try it! It's a great quilt for beginners and a quick quilt for the experts. Get quilting girls!