2009 almost gone!

The past couple months have been really busy!!
Im sorry I have not been up to date on my blog, but here I am!

Also, I am frequently on facebook, just look me up. My profile picture has the pink rose tatoo so you will know thats me for sure!

Lets recap this year 2009.

1.Hubby lost his job right before Christmas 2008.

2.He was unemployed for 6 months. I loved having him at home! but paying bills was really hard with no money coming in. *sigh*

3.My daughter announced in March she was pregnant with our first grandchild

4.My hours got cut back at the school where I worked as night custodial on call.

5.Hubby started a new job in Lewiston in June.

6.We were forced to sell our house of 8 years for a huge loss in July

7.I found my baby sister on facebook! I had a huge family reunion , seeing my baby sister and my mother , I have not seen them in 20 years! in July

8.We closed the sale of our house on Aug 1, which gave us FIVE WHOLE DAYS to pack up and load into a Uhaul and move to Lewiston.

9.I started living in Lewiston in August. Got hired for a new job, lasted all of 3 days and got fired Hahah! Try being a courier in a town you are not familiar with.

10.My Son started his senior year, at the highschool in our former town. We pay his rent and he stays up there as long as his grades are good!

11.My son started a new job at the local greek restraunt! Yippee!

12.My husbands Mom celebrated her 70th birthday in October, we hosted a big party at our house that she had no clue! Alot of her friends from years ago came and she enjoyed herself alot!

13.November 15th our grand daughter made her entry into the world. And her new adoptive parents were there to see her born.

14.November 21st was my TWENTY YEAR Anniversary with Pat! Wow! Time sure flies fast when your having fun.

And here it is December already. In a couple weeks 2010 will begin and I sure hope its a hella lots better than this year has been!
Below are some pics of the baby :)


Pat and Robin holding first grand daughter Anala born
11-15-09
7 pounds 4 ounces



Anala at two weeks old laying on the quilt I made for her going away present

Anala close up of her darling face, shes so beautiful!


Here is a full shot of the quilt I made for Anala. It is flannel on the front and flannel on the back. I machine quilted all the white area with stipples, and monogrammed her full name and birthday at the top of the quilt in purple thread.
Orange and Blue is my daughter's favorite color so I incorporated that to represent the birth mother.
Pink is My favorite color
Green is my husband Pats favorite color
And the backing/binding is purple
As you can see I made it big enough she will be using that quilt for many years!

Anala wearing frog pajamas, and the adoptive parents had a book with the same title! How cute is that! She is two weeks old in this picture.

Lots of Loves!

Robin

Where did Summer GOOOO???

My 17 year old son with his dad standing next to our old fireplace right before we moved. This was taken to put side by side with the photo of my son and hubby when we FIRST bought the house. Daddy towered and my son was muuuuuuuuuch shorter! (gotta find that pic!)

Boy I tell ya. This year has been a wild and bumpy ride. I sure could have used a vacation and go for a loooooooooong motorcycle ride to clear my mind!

I sure hope that its done for a while, Im ready for some "down time" to relax!!!

We are officially MOVED! Sold our house in Post Falls Idaho in July, with the closing date of August 1. We were waiting for several weeks to hear from the bank on the approval of offer and when they did finally give us the go-ahead, we only had ONE WEEK to pack everything and get it out of the house. So it was crazy! Rented a 26 foot truck, stuffed it floor to ceiling, front to back and closed the door while shoving a matteress into the truck. BUT.....we wound up leaving all our yard tools at one friends house in his garage, and alot of my personal sewing stuff at my next door neighbors house. We have been making little trips back up to that area and bringing home stuff , and that will be done soon!

I am posting a few pics, didnt feel the need to show you every single room but here are my favorites!

Here is the front of my new house, notice the HUGE Yard that I HAVE TO MOW!!! (all totalled it is about an acre or close to it, there is more lawn in the back too!)

This will be my quilting studio. That pink and white quilt is 100 inches square and there is alot of space around it, so that tells you how big the room is :) The lovely side porch where we have some chairs and a little table so we can watch the birds and squirrels in the morning while drinking coffee. Or at night while we drink a beer :)

the MUCH Anticipated LIBRARY!!! Im So excited to get all my books into those shelves!

Wat else has been going on?

I found my long lost sister on Facebook! I have not seen my mother or my two sisters in 20 years, so it was really exciting to see her email me back! She bought my hubby and I airplane tickets to come to her 40th Birthday party, which turned into a giant family reunion! I got to stay at her house for a whole week and get to know everyone and I had alot of fun!

my sister Merci and I , with my hubby being a goof in the backgroundmy mother and I, we sure do look alot alike nowdays!My sister and I are sewing teddy bears!

I am teaching my neice how to crazy quilt a little purse, and also teaching my sister how to make a log cabin quilt!

Close up of Em doing her stitching

This is my Dad, I havent seen him in twelve years! And my younger sister (his side) and see the cute puppy!

Here is my baby sister on my dads side, with her son and her mom.

This is a good pic of my mother, me and my sister

My daughter is starting to look pregnant hahah. She is a tiny little thing and at almost 7 months pregnant she is just now starting to get a "bump" The baby is due November 11, and she still has not decided if she will keep it or adopt it out. She has found a family she really likes and they want an open adoption so it will be nice to watch our grandchild grow up. We still hope she might keep the baby, and we would help her when she needs it. But we are not getting involved in the decision making part, that is her project!

Did you know there is 4 months exactly until Christmas Day? OH BOY! Time to start writing up schedule of events, planning meals, looking for home decor to dress the house up. Oh and not to mention christmas gifts to be made/bought and christmas cards to address!

Have a great day!!

Robin, located in LEWISTON now!

PLEASE HELP!

THIS is a post to help a very dear friend of mine Jo and her husband Don. I wanted to share this message with as many people as I can to get the message out and Help Don with his surgery costs.

Please read Jo's message below

************

Donation quilt - Open Heart Surgery fundraiser
In September Don has to undergo open heart surgery to repair or replace the Mitral Valve - and we have finally come up with a way to raise money for what we will owe after insurance pays their part. To read more about Don's surgery - click here. I have been making quilts for years, it is one thing that I can do to contribute to our situation - and we've decided to use one of the quilts for the fund raiser, and it is the Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt that was finished just last year. It is hand pieced and machine quilted, by Julie from Idaho.

It is double bed size - the fabrics are 100% cotton, all tone on tones . . .
Julie did a fabulous job - using her home sewing machine . . .
It is Don's all time favorite quilt - he says it just makes him happy to look at it . . .For a donation of $5.00 you get your name in the drawing five times - a donation of $10.00 gives you 12 chances and $20.00 will give you 25 chances, etc.

To keep this from being an actual raffle - anyone can have their name entered without a donation (though we really do appreciate the donations, but completely understand if you can't donate, not everyone can in these economic times and we don't want you to feel bad about that). Send us your good wishes and prayers - they mean so much to us.I have talked to many internet and local friends - and they are all excited about this and we already have many donations and offers to take donations for us also.

The drawing will be Sept. 6 - Don's birthday - the surgery is scheduled for Sept. 4, at this point. Any money raised over the amount that is needed for our co-pay on the surgery (approx. $25,000 if everything goes smoothly) will be donated to another person or family with a medical need. We welcome ideas of who to donate to once we reach our goal.

To donate, - we are currently working on an online payment process - email for details.We also accept checks, just email for the address to send them to. Some of our friends are taking tickets already and gathering donations, which we truly appreciate. It is amazing the support and love we feel during this stressful and scary time.If you would like to post about this donation quilt on your blog, we surely would appreciate that - and you would get your name in the drawing 5 more times and for each person you send over this way who donates - another 5 times in the drawing.Thank you all for reading this post - and for your support and prayers.

I got a SECOND PLACE Ribbon!

Hey Everyone!

I entered my crazy quilted color wheel into the Moscow Idaho quilt show and it won second place! I got alot of comments from friends that I knew while I lived there 15 years ago. They were very positive and uplifting words, and I am honored that I got such nice Kudos! These are older ladies, who have been quilting for alot longer than I have, so it was a huge thing for me!

Here are pics, you can click on the pictures to enlarge to see details.

RECIPE!!!

Ok ladies (and Gents?)
Here is the Pinapple upside down cake recipe!
It is from a very very old cookbook mind you, but it is the very best I have ever had!

You do need an iron skillet :) Or a pan that can be heated on the stove top and then baked in the oven.

1/3 cup of real butter
1 cup of brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans (or other nuts or none if thats how you want)
8 slices of drained pinapple rings

Melt butter in the iron skillet, then add the brown sugar. Mix it until the brown sugar and butter have melted together. Remove from the heat and sprinkle the nuts into the syrup. Arrange the pinapple slices over the nuts. Set it on the back burner, and preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Next get the big bowl and mixer out.
1 cup of sifted cake flour (I use self rise, it works fine) but make sure you do sift it!
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 eggs, seperated
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

Sift the flower with the baking powder. Beat the egg yolks until light, add the cooled melted butter, vanilla and mix together

Sift the sugar, beat the egg whites with the salt until stiff. Gradually add the sugar a spoon at a time to the beaten egg whites. Beating well after each addition. Fold in the egg yolk mixture, then fold in the flour about 1/4 c at a time and mix very well.

Pour batter over the pinapple rings in the iron skillet and put in the oven to bake for 30 minutes. Check it to see if its lightly browned on top.

Insert a knife on the outside edge of the pan (careful pans hot!) to loosen the cake away from the pan.

Next put a large plate or platter over the top of the pan, and turn the hot skillet onto the plate. Taking care to center the pan onto the plate because the brown sugar mixture will drizzle down the sides.

Leave the hot pan on the cake plate for about 10 minutes to get all the yummy gooey sticky sweet stuff out of the pan and onto the cake.
Then remove the pan and lick it while you are waiting for the cake to cool off enough to eat!

We usually cant wait, so we are eating it within 30 minutes of removing the pan, and its WONDERFUL when it is still warm!

See Pics below!
ALSO....as I am typing this, I have one in the oven baking!!!!

Its Febuary Already!

LAST Week, I had a nasty bad craving for the old fashioned home made Pineapple upside down cake. Here is pictures of the process. Using a iron skillet, mix up the sugars, heat til melted with butter, then lay pinapple in, pour batter over and bake.

Afterwards, turn pan onto plate and let all the warm sugars drip all over the cake. About an hour later take a nife to it and EAT! EAT More! ENJOY!

Cant you just SMELL that wonderfullness???? Its killing me to Post about it. I just might have to go make another one! hehehe


a week ago, I had a group UFO day, where a bunch of us picked a UFO (un finished object) and worked on that quilt for the day. We posted emails every 2 hours for progress reports. We had a gal in Africa, a gal in Germany and Many of us in the USA participating. It was great fun!

My UFO was this jewelbox. I made it as a class sample 10 years ago. Never got any sign ups for the class and the store let me keep the sample. I LOVE that top! But it never was finished because I wanted to actually make it bigger to fit my queen bed.

I spent all day on UFO Day making half a million 4 patches. Had to press all the scraps first because they have been stored in a case for most of that 10 year span. Plus I had to wash 1 yard of the cobalt blue, I had purchased at a later time to make the larger border but then forgot to wash it! Silly me huh.

Originally I was going to put white strips in between the pianos and the 4 patches. But after review, and taking the photo to the UFO group, we all agreed that the darker colors would work much better, and Good thing because Hubby said so too!

Heres a flannel scrap blankie I made for my oldest Chihuahua. Hes a smooth coat, meaning he has very little fur and is VERY Cold in the winter months. Hes 8 years old and its starting to affect his agility. I will often find him burrowed deep inside somebody's coat or my own couch throw, wadded up into a ball with him deep inside the middle of it.

This is project I want GONE!!! I tried to sell it on Ebay for 25 dollars. there are 20 blocks and they all measure 9 1/2 inches each. It even comes with a couple left over fat quarters of coordinating prints. DO you like it? You want it? EMAIL Me! I just want to recoup the cost of fabrics invested, and you get a nearly finished quilt out of the deal!

Ok........

Thats all for now Folks!

January 2009

Blogger is not allowing me to upload pictures right now so I am just letting you all know Im still alive and kicking!

Snow has been deep and frequent around here, keeping us busy trying to shovel sidewalks, driveway and rooftop. At one time we had almost 4 feet accumulated in the front yard.

Our main source of transportation, the Ford Escort broke the tie rod on the front drivers side. This is the car that we JUST put snow tires onto 2 weeks ago! *sigh* Murphy's law kicking into high gear? Hm?

I havent gotten much sewing done, I was tearing up the bathroom floor! Well, I got in deeper than I thought, the floor is rotted underneath the ceramic tile! So I stripped it down to raw wood. And was goign to go buy some new wood, but that darn car broke down so now I cant get the new wood like planned! Hm.....

Is God trying to tell me something????

Ok, now Im going to go SEW! I made up several tote bags using upholstery fabrics. I would show you pictures but blogger doesnt like me right now. I will try again later!

Have a wonderful day!
Robin