DAR George Washington Luncheon

One of the best parts of being a member of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution is attending events that stir up patriotic pride.  I love the swell of emotion one feels knowing we belong to one of the greatest nations on earth.  Today I attended our chapter's George Washington Luncheon.  The decorations were so cute and festive.  I love seeing the ladies who wear period costumes and the men also.  I would love to attempt making my own someday.

 

After our traditional opening ceremony of the pledge to the American flag, reciting of the America's Creed and Preamble, the singing of the National Anthem and pledge to the Texas flag, our regent gave a brief introduction to the event

 

 

 

George Washington, our first president, was born in Virginia on February 11, 1731, according to the then-used Julian calendar. In 1752 Britain and all its colonies adopted the Gregorian calendar, which then placed George Washington's birth on February 22, 1732.  Beginning with the 100^th Anniversary of his birth in 1832 citizens of the United States have been celebrating the birth of our first president in some manner, as we are doing today

 

Then Linda gave a brief history on toasting of our first president and we all joined in a toast of our own.

 

 

 

After lunch we sang Happy Birthday and then our guest speaker a former CIA member told us the story of our first spy Nathan Hale of his capture and famous saying

 

"I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country"

 

It was a wonder day and I look forward to next year.  Maybe I'll even have my own costume by then too.

 

 

 

National Margarita Day and Happy Birthday George!

As a huge fan of Jimmy Buffett (aka parrothead) I was well aware of National Margarita Day today but as I glanced at the calendar I also noticed it is our first president George Washington's birthday!  And though Im sure Washington never had the pleasure of this tropical drink (his favorite was a sweet porter) I raise my glass and say thank you George for setting the bar high and being an awesome first president helping to make this country the great country it is! May I never take for granted the sacrifice of the lives and fortunes of our patriots which gave us the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness which of course includes a great margarita!

Happy National Margarita Day and Happy Birthday George!

The Feel of Spring

You would think with all the cold weather keeping me inside I would be so on top of my blog posts and handmade projects for my shop. Wrong! There must be some truth to the correlation between low amounts of sunlight hours and depression.  Of course I'm not depressed but just feeling blah a lot of time and have taken way too many naps and watched way too much TV.

So anyway I was at the salon today getting that pesky grey colored and flipping through all the new March issues of my favorite magazines.  It was just what I needed to put that spark back in my days. I'm all excited about getting a garden started and making all kinds of cute spring bright colored projects for my shop.

My first project is a bunny outfit for a newborn. And the second is a baby quilt for a dear friend who's having her first baby in May.

Can't wait to show you the finished products!

So what are you doing to help bring spring a little earlier to your life?
Leave your comments below.  I'd love to hear from you.

 Happy Crafting!

Dr Seuss Quilt

Our grandson turned one!  Oh how the days are long but the years are short!  His mother threw a wonderful Dr Seuss party for the family and everyone had a great time!  All the decorations were so cute and fun.  She wants to decorate his room with Oh The Places You'll Go story so I made a quilt and framed two of the pages to help get her started.

 

I got this chevron pattern from HERE.

 

 

Happy Birthday Brady! We love you!

Christmas Dinner Place Settings

I know it's a week into January but I wanted to share with you the cute Santa Sleighs I made after getting inspired on Pinterest.  I invited the family over for dinner and went all out.

The cute Santa sleighs are made from:

• Candy Canes
• Hershey Bars
•  Hershey Nuggets wrapped in tissue paper
• Krisp Kringle Santa

Using a hot glue gun attach Candy Cane runners to the Hershey Bar.  I tried Tacky Glue at first but they fell off the next day.

Next tie up 4 candies in a red tissue sack with gold ribbon and name tag

Hot glue sack to the back of the sleigh

Finally secure Santa.

I have pinned this post to my Pinterest for you to save and give you inspiration for next year.  Remember Christmas is only 350 days away!

Happy New Year!

There are a lot of traditions that are observed around the world on New Year's Day and here in the southern United States it is eating black eyed peas for good luck.  The tradition dates back to our Civil War in the 1860's.   At first planted as food for livestock, and later a food staple for slaves, the fields of black-eyed peas were ignored as General Sherman's troops destroyed or stole other crops, thereby giving the humble, but nourishing, black-eyed pea an important role as a major food source for surviving Confederates.

One of my favorite ways to serve them is with rice, ham and tomatoes in a dish called Hoppin' John.

Old South Hoppin' John

Cheap. Fast. Good!

by Beverly Mills & Alicia Ross



 

Ingredients:

 

2 tsp olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped ham

2 tsp mince garlic

4 cups chicken broth

1tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/4 tsp dried basil

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 1/2 cup long grain rice

2 cans (15 oz) black-eyed peas

1 can (14 1/2 oz) diced tomatoes

 

saute onion and garlic a couple of minutes in oil then add ham

 

 

 

next add chicken broth and spices and bring to a boil

 

 

add rice and lower heat to simmer 20 minutes

 

 

 



 

while rice cooks drain and rinse peas

 

 

 

 

When rice is done add tomatoes and black-eyed peas.

Cook, stirring, until the tomatoes and peas are thoroughly mixed in with the rice.

 

 

 

 

Here's wishing you and yours

good luck and a Happy New Year!

 

 

 

 

A Quilt for my BFF

My best friend loves the colors of fall and so for her Christmas gift I made a simple lap quilt using a charm pack of the Phenomenal Fall by Sandy Gervais for Moda Fabrics.

 

After exchanging gifts we took her two girls to see Christmas lights. Sharing good times with good friends is one of my favorite things to do at Christmas.

 

 

Christmas Banners

Banners are so popular this year!  And with all my scrapbooking supplies I knew I could duplicate all adorable ones I saw on Pinterest!  So here are the two I made.  The "Santa" one is done with 400pt font called Rosewood STD Regular.  I printed the letters red on cream cardstock and mounted them on red cardstock. Then I used my lace border punch to add a decorative touch and strung them on a red satin ribbon.  The "Believe" was printed with 300pt Rosewood on light tan cardstock and cut to look like flags.  I used simple twine to string them together.  You should try it.  It makes the house so festive!

Commissioned Tree Skirt

It's fun being paid to be crafty!  The receptionist where I have my nails done asked me to make a tree skirt for her.  I brought in an assortment of ideas and she picked this one.  The directions were for a 25" diameter and I adjusted the measurements to make it 60" for her 9' tree.

Making a 60" diameter circle takes about 4 yards of fabric by sewing two 60" long pieces together then trimming the 88" width down making a 60" square. I then folded the square in half and then in half again the alternate way. I then folded it on the diagonal twice making it into a cone. I used a plate charger which gave me the scalloped look I was after.

 

For the ornaments I traced the design onto iron fusible interfacing. After ironing the the fusible interfacing to the fabric I cut out each piece then ironed in place.

 

 

Finally I embellished each ornament with gold trim and a red ribbon.

 

 

Before quilting I sewed the back fabric, batting and top together with top wrong side up.  I left a large enough gap to turn the skirt right side out. Then I machine quilted the edge and around each ornament.

 

Then I added red ribbon to tie the skirt around the tree and whola I was done!

 

 

Merry Christmas! and Happy Crafting!

 

 

 



Organized Work Space

One of my favorite websites that helps me get my house in order is FlyLady. I found a printable Grand Master To Do List on her site here. I went through my house and made a list of everything I want to get done before Christmas.

I took time to tackle my work space in the kitchen.  FlyLady calls this Control Central.  I keep my laptop, phone directories, post office supplies, bills, and miscellaneous items like coupons, catalogs, and the such.

 

Before

During

 

After

 

A Place for everything and everything in its place!