It might not sound good but...

Here's that soup/stew I was talking about. Thanks, Laine, for the recipe.

Ingredients:

1/2 cabbage shredded (sautee w/ nxt 3 indredients until all wilted)

kale (3-4 big leaves, de-rib & chop small)

onion (sliced)

garlic (2-3 cloves)

2-3 lg potatoes (prebaked or not, big cubes, add to crockpot)

Jimmy Dean hot sausage (brown & drain, add to crockpot)

4 c chicken or vegetable stock

add salt & pepper, red pepper flakes and caraway seeds to taste

Stir it all up and cook low for however long (or until the potatoes are done if they're not precooked). Freezes OK, but when you thaw & reheat, the potatoes break up. Hope you like it!

p.s. I LOVE reynolds slow cooker liners. Not only is cleanup non-existant, but you can also put your food in the fridge w/out having to put the crockpot dish in there. Can't be doing that, it competes with the milk and my crystal light for valuable shelf-space. I just seal the top with one of those pampered chef twixit clips & put the bag in the veggie drawer.

Cold?

Allow me to introduce you to my favorite winter accessory...

Other than, of course, my slippers and (12 year old) flannel pants. Wouldn't want to make them jealous...

Here it is. The Rice Wrap.

These winter necessities are available for purchase at mall kiosks and stuff, but upon closer inspection, they're really easy to make.

You can get all fancy with them, or you can just whip one up. I microwave mine for 3:55, and enjoy. You can also put it in the fridge or freezer if you have injuries you want to ice or use cold on.

It's not washable, so when I heat it to use on massage clients, I put it in a pillowcase.

You can also make Super Simple ones by simply sewing a rectangle, filling about 3/4 full of rice, and sewing it shut. You can get all fancy with that by adding the rice a cup at a time and sewing it off in sections to keep the rice more evenly distributed when you wear it.

Or make it Super Duper Simple by filling an old (hole-free) tube sock with rice and sewing or tying the end shut.

You can also make eye pillows. You can warm these, cool them in the fridge or freezer to use as an icepack for kiddos or cold eye compress, or just lay them over your eyes as you lay on the couch thus signifying to your husband and children that you'd rather not get up and get anyone cheerios right now. And let me know how that works out for you.

I like to make mine out of flannel. Jus' like my pants. Cuz it's cozy.

A word of warning folks... Burnt rice is Not Relaxing. Patience is your friend when figuring out how long to heat up your new love. Start with 1:30 (less for the eye pillow) and add 30 seconds at a time until it's hot enough. 3:55 is fine for 5 cups of rice in my microwave, but microwaves are all different and you will need less time for less rice. Obvs. To reiterate, burnt rice smells Superbad and will stink up your house for days. 30 seconds at a time, folks. Then write down how long you did it for so that you don't have to guess. Cuz burnt rice smells BAD, in case I forgot to tell you.

I will try to post a picture & dimensions of the template I used for the rice wrap pictured. I drew & cut it out of a cardboard box so that I can make rice wraps forevermore...

And for my next warming activity, I shall make a yummy soup that tastes a LOT like the Olive Garden zuppa toscana (which, BTW, I ate no fewer than 3 bowls of the other day. It's that good). Oh, and how sad is this... I'm complaining about the cold, and it's 61 degrees outside.

Quilt Festival

Anyone who wants to see some incredible quilts (and one of mine, too:), check out the Blogger Quilt Festival

Here is my entry, thanks for the encouragement, Leslie :)

um... that is all.

where'v you been?!

just kidding... I know I'm the one who's been missing. We had some fun company last week and I've just been stockpiling good things to blog about! Also, our camera is on its last leg. The battery lasts (literally) about a minute or two, after charging all night long. Hence, not a lot of pictures being taken round here lately. Anyway, here's what I've got...

Joshua trying to hide from the camera. Yeah, I totally can't see you there. Oh, look at my fabric in a mess in that box on the floor. I'm slowly but surely getting a little sewing area set up. At least I'm not sitting on the floor next to the box anymore.

And here's a product of my new workspace... a cute lil' outfit for Zoe! It's 2T, so it will (still) fit her next spring. I lined the bottom of the pants w/ the yellow so that the size of the cuff can change as she gets taller. (I sewed them evenly, I just cuffed them unevenly in the picture. I'll press them at her current height when I can get her to hold still long enough for me to adjust them while she's standing)

unfortunately, our little model was taking a nap at photo timethis is what Joshua did when Craig told him to put his underwear on this morning

And here is the dresser/hutch I painted for Zoe's room. Don't think I have a before photo, but my great grandfather made it for my mom when she was little. I probably sanded off a few layers of lead paint, come to think of it. It was white with red knobs & now it's 'barely pink' with pink & brown ceramic knobs from craft-a-holics emporium... uh, I mean hobby lobby. I put her little board books in the top and blankets, etc in the bottom. I may move the books to the bottom too and store some fabric in the top.

and the crayon rolls I made our TX nieces & nephews for belated bday presents. 3 boys and 2 girls. Obvs. (I linked to the instructions, which I got from Leslie)

I can't find my camera...

but I shouldn't let that stop me from posting something. I feel like yall will be bored if I don't have pics. Oh well, we'll try this for a while (until I find el camera)(like how I used my espanol right there?). Anyway, I don't have much to say. I've been making crayon rolls all day for a few special birthday nieces and nephews to whom we owe some bday gifties. Every time I finish one, Zoe carries it around for a while. I have about 17 U.F.O.s (unfinished objects) on my sewing table, and keep starting new ones. I have a few things that require hand sewing, so maybe I'll try to get one or two done tonight.

In other news, Joshua is now in the famed 'big boy bed.' I was determined that he would fit in his crib until high school, but for some reason we brought the BBB down from upstairs yesterday and he has been doing great in it. Craig and I aren't sure if he knows that he can actually get out of it. Or maybe he took heed when I said "if you get out of your big boy bed without me here, you'll be in big trouble and I'm going to have to put you back in your crib forevermore." And I guess since he's diaper-free except for nap/bedtime, this was the logical step. I can only hope that Zoe will stay in her crib until she's 34.5 months old!

apparently washing my hands 17 times was not enough

We started our day by watching Craig fly his helicopter over the house. The neighbors came over since we had some advance notice, and I videotaped the blessed event. Hopefully, I can figure out how to get videos onto the mac (yes, I like calling it 'the mac' - it's a lot shorter than 'the computer' and it makes me feel cool) mostly for Craig's fam to see, since everyone around here sees helicopters all the time and could probably not care less who is flying them.

After than, I began all the cooking projects that I have been waiting to do. Don't ask me why I

decided to do them all at the same time. I made pico de gallo (without cilantro, obvs) w/ tomatoes and jalapenos from our garden, made jalapeno jelly w/ jalapenos from our garden,

and made brunswick stew w/ some delish pork from neighbor Tracie (like that shoutout Tracie? You'd better be reading my blog) tomatoes & herbs from the garden, and some other veggies that have been hanging out in the fridge waiting to fulfill their purpose in life. I'm eating it now, and it's pretty darn great. I used an adaptation of Laine's recipe based on the contents of my fridge/pantry.

Even though I did wear gloves while I cut all the jalapenos, and washed my hands a bunch of times, it was still a bad idea to itch my eye. Oh well.

Here is my most recent finished project.

I've been on a real arts and crafts kick here lately... getting ready for winter, I suppose. This is my adaptation on The Quilt Formerly Known as Q-Bert. When Joshua saw it, he said "oh Mommy, I love this quilt that you made just for me." Too cute! It's just the right size for Zoe, though. I'm finally out of receiving blankets, so I'll take a break from quilting and move on to my other projects.

The front: hexagons made out of 3 diamonds each, pieced and quilted one at a time, and then sewn together & cut to make the raggy edges. Some of the diamonds were pieced together from scraps. That took me longer than anything else.

this is the middle hexagon, made out of 3 diamonds that were all pieced from scraps.

this is the back. The pink fabrics were not receiving blankets, they were flannel that I had left over from making rice wraps.

My model is showing you the size of the quilt. Perfect nap size! I almost made it one round bigger, but since it's pieced a hexagon at a time, I figured I can add to it when she outgrows it

As for the next projects... I still have to finish Zoe's outfit, make some booties to go with it (thanks to Leslie), make some crayon rolls (um, 7 of them) for gifts, crochet a hat that fits Zoe, and make some Christmas stockings (by Hubby's request) and aprons for my little elves (anybody have a favorite pattern? Leslie?). My outdoor projects include planting some fall flowers and bulbs, building a little grow area in the garage and figure out which plants and cuttings I'll have to bring in for winter (including all the baby strawberry plants). Seriously. Maybe I'll just sit on the couch & do nothing.

our new baby - updated with more pictures

On the off chance that Nonna is perusing my blog... here's the adorable outfit you gave Zoe for her birthday! Look at this sassy little face!

Now don't go getting all excited... it's not a real baby or anything. We got a new computer so I'm just messing around with it and figured blogging would give me a little practice. It's going to take some getting used to, but it's nice to have faster internet and, well, faster everything else too. I still have to do all the laborious unfun stuff like move all the files, etc., but hopefully I will be motivated and not drag that chore out for the next year. In the meantime, our new LED screen makes it easy to see how poor the quality of our pictures is! How disappointing. But here are some cute ones anyway. Hopefully our new computer will make it easier to share and post some cute videos too! We have a video camera that's been collecting dust because our old computer took forever to save/edit stuff. And yes, we caved and got a mac. This thing had better be awesome or I will be severely disgruntled. Without further adieu...

Zoe's hair is getting long, I even got in in a ponytail for about 3 minutes.Zoe likes to eat with her hands and feet
Joshua asked to wear Daddy's work clotheshe's modeling