Quilt

A year ago, my great grandma died. I feel very lucky to have had a great grandma for almost 30 years of my life. That's pretty incredible, I think. My grandma was an amazing quilter. She made one for me when I was in third grade and i love curling up in it. It doesn't come out often anymore because there are pieces coming apart and I want to treasure it so that my children and grandchildren can have a piece of her.

When my sister helped my grandma clean out her house, they found these old quilt blocks from 1938. Yes, from 1938. Each block was done by a different family member (sister or in-law of my grandma) who wrote their name and location in the center. We are thinking that all 12 blocks were given to my grandma as a gift or to have her finish the quilt. We really are not sure why. But, over the years she forgot about them and the quilt never was made.

Tradition has it that quilters used to make 1 square a bit wrong on purpose. I am really not sure why. I do think it is a neat tradition though.

My sister and mom are working diligently to finish the quilt in time for the Terrell Family Reunion in July. Hopefully we will be able to hang it up. I will post a picture of the completed quilt another time.

Honeyed Chocolate Chip Cookies

I know that I have mentioned that I am always looking for new chocolate chip cookie recipes . . . and now I must mention that I think I am going to see how long it takes me before I break down and just make the traditional chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Tonight, I gave Jon a choice of several variations of chocolate chip cookies to pick from and he picked this one. I have to admit, I was very curious how they would taste, too. Anything with honey has got to be scrumptious, right?

I found this recipe here. Because this recipe contains honey, I must let you know that the recipe cooks at a lower temperature and browns beautifully! They also stay moist for longer and are chewy (the good kind of chewy). I just had a piece of a cookie (2 days later) and they still feel and taste just like they popped out of the over (minus the warm, melty feeling). Someday. . . I will make these cookies again! Please try this and let me know your thoughts. . . I am very curious! Happy baking! :)

Here's the recipe:

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup honey

2 large eggs

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in honey and both eggs, adding the eggs in one at a time. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Working by hand or at a low speed, gradually incorporate flour mixture into honey mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Shape cookie dough into 1-inch balls and place onto prepared baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches between each cookie to allow for the dough to spread.Bake for 12-15 minutes, until cookies are golden brown. Cool for 3-4 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Yummy Chocolate Chip Cookies

So, I am blogging today instead of cleaning. In the room next to me, sits a rather large mess of dishes, babyfood that needs to be made, along with many, many other things on my list (any takers ?) Last week, I found a recipe in my recipe collection for Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough To-Go by Mrs. Fields. I remember writing down that recipe on a trip to Idaho to visit my Aunt and Uncle. These cookies sounded so delicious! And now over 5 years later, I finally have made them. The funny thing is, I didn't tell my husband about the cookies and he said he was thinking about how they tasted like a Mrs. Field's cookie. So, I am hoping that that was a compliment because I certainly enjoyed them. In fact, the other half of the dough is sitting in the freezer just waiting patiently until I cook some more up. Here's the recipe:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup quick oats
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 sticks, unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup coarsly chopped pecans
12 oz semi sweet chocolate chips (I also added a half bag of white chocolate chips)

In a mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients. In another bowl, cream sugars and butter together. Beat eggs and vanilla and gently stir in nuts and chocolate chips.

I baked half of my dough right away and through the rest of it in a 1 qt. freezer bag and stuck in the freezer. They can be frozen for up to 6 months.

Bake at 300 for 20 minutes or so.

An explosion. . . .

No, nothing really exploded, although my husband (who has been rather patient) might think otherwise. I have a very long list of cards that I have needed to make and some stamps that I have been borrowing from my mom until school let out for the summer (that would be today). Man. . . I need to get movin'! The dining room table has been taken over by scrapbook paper, cardstock, stamps, and embellishments, causing chaos in our primarily clean home. So, here is a sample of what I have been working on. There will be more to come!

This is a close up on the card below. I bought the card at a local scrapbook store because I liked the detail around the punched out center. I added the celebrate! stamp and flower for my SIL, Kelley's birthday and then made a matching gift bag.

Quick and easy graduation card.

Welcome to the Neighborhood!

My favorite!

The Cookbook is here!!!!

The Church Cookbook is officially done and ready to purchase. Stephanie and I are really proud of how well it turned out! The cover and all page inserts are in color with children's artwork proudly displayed. There are well over 500 recipes and 250 pages. We are very excited to help raise money for this year's VBS!

Recent Cards

I have been trying to find time to let my creative brain go, and lately we have had lots of excuses to pull out the paper, stamps, and ink and make a mess in my dining room. Here are some of my creations. . . .

Both use Stampin' Up's new set, Polka Dot Punches. This gift bag is a basic white bag with the images stamped in pretty in pink, going gray, and pixie pink inks. The gift tag, uses pretty in pink and white paper, and pretty in pink button, and ink.

I found a card very similar to this online and thought I might try it out for the mother's in our family. It was a lot of fun to make!

Mommy and Me tea

This past Saturday, our children's ministry at church held a tea party for mom's and daughters. I got the opportunity to host a table, which meant I had to carefully pack up my "good stuff" and haul it to church and then set my table. I had so much fun!

This was my table with all my pretty stuff.

This was the favor I made for the people who sat at my table. I really wanted it to match my table. Cardstock is Navy Blue and White. Silver and white scrapbook paper is from Stampin' Up (I have forgotten the name of it). Stamp in Polka Dot Punches and the matching paper punches.